BANGKOK: Thai Customs officials seize 122 live pangolins before they are smuggled out of the country for food.
Thai Customs officials seized the pangolins, a scaly animal, as they were being smuggled from Indonesia and Malaysia bound for China and Vietnam. Several species of the mammal have been designated as endangered and any trade is banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Thai Customs seized the pangolins at Prachuap Khiri Khan, a province about 185 miles southwest of Bangkok. Thai Customs officials said pangolins are one of the most illegally trafficked mammals in Asia.
Pangolin meat is considered a delicacy in China and their scales believed to hold medicinal properties.
