15th Feb: World Pangolin Day

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World Pangolin Day falls on the third Saturday of February each year – so in 2025, it’s on 15th February.  

Pangolins urgently need our help.  One of  their biggest problems is that people don't know much about them - but they are the most illegally trafficked mammal on the planet.   So today on World Pangolin Day, please share the word about the pangolin and be their voice.  Stand up for pangolins! 

#WorldPangolinDay  =  the chance to tell people about pangolins

Please shout out for pangolins – tweet, share on Facebook, Instagram, X, everywhere you can think of.  Spread the word about pangolins and the work being done to help with their conservation.



World Pangolin Day

 

The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group has launched its global conservation action plan, Scaling Up Pangolin Conservation and you can download the PDF here.  You can also see the national strategies for Singapore, Taiwan, Nepal, Hong Kong SAR and the Philippines.  The global conservation action plan includes:

  1. Conservation Research - finding out more about pangolins, their habitats, behaviours, etc
  2. Pangolin Strongholds - identifying where they are
  3. Policy Recommendations including legislation, enforcement 
  4. Demand reduction, behaviour change, and awareness raising

The Pangolin Crisis Fund invites us all to roll with them on World Pangolin Day! The Pangolin Crisis Fund invests in projects to stop the poaching of pangolins, to stop the trade and demand for pangolin products and to raise the profile of pangolins.  They say since launching in 2019 with a mission to save all 8 species of pangolin from extinction, they have supported 90 projects in 28 countries across Africa and Asia.  They couldn't have done this without the support of people like you and me.  Read their 2025 report and find out about some of the projects they are helping with in India, Kenya, Cameroon and Bhutan. Their report also tells you about some of the Pangolin Caretakers in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. 

The Pangolin Crisis Fund has also given a grant to WildAid which has worked to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products in China and Vietnam.  It is working to raise awareness of the pangolins’ plight and discourage consumption of their meat and scales.   If China stops making and using pangolin medicines in its hospital networks and suggests alternatives, other practioners will follow suit.  The demand for pangolins in China will reduce.



Find out more from the Pangolin Crisis Fund

Fauna and Flora International have an appeal to help with pangolin conservation - to roll out pangolin protection programmes.  Find out more here.

Take a look at A Journey through Pangolin rehabilitation with Suwilanji Sichone who has worked with animals for 29 years.  (29th January 2025)

African Wildlife Foundation has a three pronged approach to protect the pangolin:

  1. It promotes public awareness working with partner organisations to create public awareness campaigns, such as "When the Buying Stops the Killing can too" to show consumers of the damage wildlife products do to wildlife populations and that there are no medicinal properties in pangolin scales
  2. It deploys detection dogs with its Canines for Conservation programme – AWF works with wildlife authorities to train and deploy sniffer dog teams to seaports, airports and other wildlife trafficking dogs. 
  3. It engages communities and get locals involved, giving them the tools and incentives they need for sustainable agriculture that allow them to move away from hunting threatened wildlife for food 

Pangolins need us to explain that wildlife crime doesn’t pay

Education for Nature – Vietnam  (ENV) is working to educate people that wildlife crime doesn’t pay;   it has a  You Tube video showing a wildlife traffickers in prison, with prison sentences of up to 15 years for wildlife trafficking.   They have a number of videos which you can share to stop pangolin consumption and trade. The ENV is urging the public to join the fight against wildlife crime.  And they have a safer with science video, showing that science is safer than relying on traditional medicines.  

Pangolin Projects and Conservation Charities need us to help them so that they can help the pangolins

There’s plenty of work being done to help pangolins – with lots of charities working their heart out to solve the problem.  Visit our list of pangolin charities on Animals Charities and you’ll find more links.