An insightful documentary shown on RTÉ Two on Sunday night highlighted the plight of the pangolin, a shy, scaly animal found in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which has the unfortunate title of the world's most trafficked mammal.
A 2016 report by animal charity, WildAid, estimated that one million pangolins were taken from the wild in the preceding decade.
The nocturnal, solitary creature is often compared to a scaly anteater. It has no teeth and survives on a diet of insects it consumes with the aid of its extremely long tongue.
All eight of the subspecies of pangolin are protected under national and international law, but illegal trade in the animals continues and two types of pangolin are now critically endangered.