Suspected of hosting coronavirus, pangolins get highest protection in China

After initially suspecting the snake and the bat for the Covid-19, Chinese scientists believe that the pangolin may be an intermediate host of the novel coronavirus to humans

China has upgraded the protection of the pangolin, believed to be the intermediate host of the coronavirus, to that of the first-class protected animals on par with the endangered species like giant pandas.

Pangolin meat is viewed as a delicacy in China and its scales are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicines to promote lactation and cure impotence resulting in the massive poaching of the mammal.

The pangolin is also believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal. About one million pangolins are estimated to have been poached in the last decade, and 20 tonnes of pangolins and their parts