All eight pangolin species are threatened by massive illegal trade for their scales and meat, making anti-poaching enforcement the most urgent conservation priority.
Pangolins seized by customs officers are often transported in packed sacks causing crushing injuries, dehydration, and stress-induced death before reaching markets. Their defensive curling behavior, evolved against predators, provides no protection against human capture - a tragic mismatch between evolved defense and novel threat. Captivity stress causes such high mortality that rehabilitation success rates are low. The trade causes suffering at every stage from capture to consumption.