February 19th: World Pangolin Day!

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

The Tree Pangolin

This specimen from the RPMT collections was recently ‘virtually donated’ to Lauren Laverne’s 6 Museum as part of her 6 Music Breakfast Show.

Exhibit #10: Taxidermy Mount of a Tree Pangolin from the Booth Museum

It is a Victorian taxidermy example of a Tree Pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis), a scaly mammal native to Western and Central Africa. Pangolins are the only scaly mammals on earth, and there are eight different species found across Africa and Asia.

Tragically, because of false medical beliefs they are now the most trafficked mammal on the planet, and are killed in their hundreds of thousands every year. All eight species are endangered – some critically. So this World Pangolin Day (February 19th) let all your friends know about their plight!