Possible Ecological Effects of Trafficking Pangolins

 I loved reading about the pangolins.  They are incredibly interesting creatures. They are scaly mammals akin to modern day dinosaurs, described as dog dragons.  They are as if something straight out of science fiction.  This makes it hard for me to accept that they are the most trafficked mammals in the world.  How can people accept such a unique creature possibly disappearing from the Earth?  They are practically invincible in wildlife but we are their only threat for the very bizarre reasons of being a delicacy and unverified medicinal purposes.  It seems despite their rarity the trafficking is done for economic incentives while ignoring the possible ecological effects for the future.   There is evidence that ants eat the rubber trees because of the small number of pangolins.  This is only one ecological effect. So little is known about the creature there could be several more ecological consequences to their trafficking. We need to preserve this creature not only because of how fascinating it is, but to uncover more of it’s scientific mystery and discover what it could possibly to for ecology and humanity as a whole.