African pangolins — ground and tree pangolins — face escalating trafficking pressure as Asian pangolin populations collapse, with welfare impacts across capture, transport and captivity.
Captured pangolins curl into a defensive ball — a behaviour exploited by traffickers. Confined in sacks with other individuals, they suffer from overheating, dehydration, physical injury and extreme stress. Their highly specialised myrmecophagous diet is almost impossible to replicate in captivity. Rescued individuals require years of intensive care and rarely return to the wild. African welfare NGOs are developing improved husbandry protocols to increase survival rates.