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Gloria Chan

A fishing boat has been caught trying to smuggle the frozen carcasses of thousands of endangered scaly anteaters into China, according to a news website report.
The boat was intercepted in the Pearl River estuary in Jiangmen in southern Guangdong province, Thepaper.cn said.
Some 2,674 pangolins were found packed in boxes and stripped of their scales.
READ MORE: Pangolin scales worth HK$17m found hidden in shipments from Africa
The anteater’s meat is a considered a delicacy in China and their scales are also thought to have medicinal properties.
Chinese customs said it was the biggest seizure they had made of smuggled pangolins, according to the report.
The animal is a protected species under Chinese law.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classes the pangolin as critically endangered.
READ MORE: Pangolins headed for extinction, in part due to booming Asian demand
It is most trafficked mammal in the world, according to a New York Times report in March, citing wildlife experts.
The species is found in the wild in Africa and Asia.


Fishing boat caught trying to smuggle thousands of endangered pangolins into China

Pangolin's meat is considered a delicacy in China and its scales are thought by some to have medicinal properties. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Pangolin scales worth HK$17m found hidden in shipments from Africa

Pangolins are scaly anteaters and two types of the mammal are endangered. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Some of the 3.3 tonnes of pangolin scales seized. Photo: Government Information Services

Over three tonnes of scales from the endangered species were found in two shipments sent from Africa via Malaysia.Photo: Felix Wong

Pangolins headed for extinction, in part due to booming Asian demand

Slaughtered pangolins found in an underground garage in Guangzhou last week. Trade in the creatures is booming in Africa. Photo: Reuters

Slaughtered pangolins found in an underground garage in Guangzhou last week. Trade in the creatures is booming in Africa.Photo: Reuters

A giant pangolin in the wild in a Gabon park.Photo: Reuters

A giant pangolin in the wild in a Gabon park. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong celebrity Sharon Kwok's tragic pangolin encounter

Sharon Kwok with an injured pangolin in Sumatra, Indonesia, in April.

Chinese poachers could face 20 years over pangolins

A member of the Philippine Coast Guard holds a frozen pangolin or scaly anteater on board a Chinese vessel that ran into the Tubbataha coral reef, in the southwestern Philippines. Photo: AP

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