Unfortunately, all eight pangolin species are facing serious threats. While some dangers are specific to the species' habitat, all species are extensively poached to meet the demand in East Asia for their products. Pangolin scales, although historically used for traditional medicine in Asia and Africa, are currently used unsustainably in Traditional Chinese Medicine. While pangolin numbers in the wild are unknown, seizures made across Africa and Asia, and even in transit points in Europe, suggest that an estimated 900,000 pangolins were poached and trafficked from 2000 to 2019.
Pangolin meat, consumed and sold in high numbers in markets in Africa as bushmeat, is also considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam.
Pangolin wine, which refers to whole pangolins and/or body parts soaked in wine to be imbibed as a tonic and as rice wine mixed with pangolin body fluids, is also consumed in East Asia.
The use of pangolin scales for ornamental purposes (carved into rings or with designs on the scales themselves) has also been reported but more research is needed to understand this use.