In an adorable ad film for the Wild Aid, Jackie Chan is given an unusual task – teaching martial arts to three animated Pangolins, so that they can defend themselves against their real predators – the poachers.
Roly-poly, rotund, and covered in scales, they struggle to stand on two feet. When they can’t fight, they curl up into a ball. But after Jackie Chan’s masterclass, an animated Pangolin defends itself by serving a flying kick on the poacher’s chin. The ad-campaign titled ‘Kung-fu Pangolin’ is cute and heartwarming. But in reality, the Pangolins are in no position to defend themselves against poachers.
Illegal trade in Pangolins has reached an epic scale. All the eight species of Pangolins (four in Asia and four in Africa) are now enlisted in the IUCN Red List, designated as ‘threatened with extinction.’ The Sunda Pangolin of China is classified as ‘critically endangered.’
Though they are protected by the world’s strictest laws banning commercial trade under international law, they remain the most illegally traded mammal in the world. In Central and West Africa alone, over 2.7 million Pangolins are killed every year. Many of these are killed when they are very young – even before they reach their reproductive age. In Asia, over one million Pangolins have been traded in the last decade alone, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.
What drives this industrial genocide of these timid, nocturnal animals, found in the jungles?
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