A dark shop in Laos has its door open but no expected walk-in customers. Visits happen by appointment from a specific clientele. This shop is part of an organized crime network selling highly illegal products. The shelves display specialist tea, local coffee, trinkets and cigarettes, but photographs of wild animals on the walls hint at what is truly for sale. Upstairs, glass cases fill a large room containing products banned in every country. Ivory bracelets and chopsticks are instantly recognizable. A complete crocodile hide hangs next to a row of reptile-skin belts. Other items are less identifiable: large bones, powdered substances, a glass tank of liquid and a mammal skeleton. The most shocking products are serving bowls filled with pangolin scales.
The Guardian investigated the illegal wildlife trade in Laos, gaining access to numerous businesses. Some appeared to be cigarette shops but sold pangolin tails alongside jars of snakes suspended in fluid. Many were traditional Chinese medicine shops selling a mix of legal and illegal products. Others were disguised as cultural centers for Chinese tourists, heavily guarded with electric gates and CCTV. Videos on Chinese social media show tourists displaying their illegal purchases and even eating pangolin meat. These shops target a new influx of Chinese tourists.
Over one million pangolins have been poached in the past decade, more than rhinos, elephants and tigers combined. Their scales are prized in traditional Chinese medicine, and their meat is eaten as a status symbol. These unique creatures, anteaters native to Asia and Africa, are the only mammals covered entirely in keratin scales. They have no teeth and curl into a ball when threatened, making them easy for humans to capture. Jeremy Phan of the Lao Conservation Trust for Wildlife says pangolins are now appearing in Vientiane, the capital, far from their natural habitat. Two years ago it was very unusual to find one in the city, but recently more and more are being found.