The illegal trade in pangolins is booming, and while the name might not sound familiar,

pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but you heard that right.

Isn't that Rhino's, elephants, tigers?

No, it's these things called pangolins, and they're the most trafficked mammal in the

world.

And chances are fair that most of us have never heard of this adorable, scaly creature.

Imagine an armadillo type creature, but with scales instead of armored plates.

This is Rachel Bale, a freelance journalist who's been reporting on wildlife trafficking

for seven years.

And they have a long tail and an even longer tongue, and they crawl around on the ground

and they sometimes hold their little front legs out in front of them like a T-Rex.

And they just straight up smell like urine.

Pangolins are known to pee on themselves because the urine helps keep mites and other kinds

of pests off of their skin and out of their scales.

So you've got these creatures that smell like pee.

They're the length of a German shepherd, got a long tail and a long snout, and their bodies

are covered in a thousand scales.

And I gotta be honest, I'm sure most of y'all are going to Google pangolins so you can

see what they look like, but to me, it's like they taught a two-foot-long pine cone how

to walk, and they're nocturnal.

So they spend their day sleeping in burrows they've made, and at night they use their strong

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