WildTrace The open atlas of illegal wildlife trade

Pangolin in the illegal wildlife trade

WildTrace has recorded 131 cases involving pangolin from public reports between 2024-01-15 and 2026-09-23, in 14 countries. 8 of them rest on an official or validated source.

CITES appendix I. Taxa covered: Manis crassicaudata, Manis javanica, Manis pentadactyla. Counts show where this trade is reported, not where it happens: reporting is uneven between countries and languages, and cases whose reports name no place are counted but cannot be mapped.

Where pangolin cases are reported

Recent cases

Where seized pangolin came from, and where it was seized

141 shipments of pangolin seized or confiscated were reported to CITES since 2015 (CITES Trade Database, source code I). Counts are shipment records, not quantities, and some countries report far more completely than others.

Taken from

  • Vietnam 15
  • China 8
  • Liberia 6
  • Ghana 6
  • Mexico 5
  • Cameroon 4
  • South Africa 4
  • Nigeria 4

Seized in

  • United States 119
  • China 5
  • Tanzania 4
  • Senegal 3
  • South Africa 2
  • Ivory Coast 2
  • Singapore 2
  • Switzerland 2

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