Viral: IFS officer shares pic of 'second most trafficked mammal on planet', can you guess the name?

Parveen Kaswan, Indian Forest Service officer, frequently posts pictures of animals in their natural settings. In a recent tweet, he shared a picture of the second-most trafficked mammal on the planet and asked his followers to identify the mammal's name.

The guessing game continued until he revealed the mammal's name, though. The majority of his followers and Twitter users correctly identified the name as pangolin. Later, the IFS officer himself provided the answer, stating that the image is of a pangolin. He revealed in his post that pangolins are the second most trafficked mammal after humans.

He said that while being smuggled, our team managed to save this one. Photo was taken after release into the wild. Chinese and Indian pangolins are present in India. They are primarily trafficked for their scales which are used for conventional Chinese medicine.

IFS Parveen shared the photo along with the caption that reads, "Second most trafficked mammal on planet. Do you know what it is ?"

Second most trafficked mammal on planet. Do you know what it is ? pic.twitter.com/5XwOm0qgKC

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) January 15, 2023

More than one million people have viewed and nearly 10,000 people have liked the viral post on social media. The majority of his followers and Twitter users managed to identify the name as pangolin.

China and Vietnam are two nations where pangolins are in high demand. Scales from pangolins are used in folk medications and traditional medicine, and their flesh is prized as a delicacy. National and international laws protect all eight species of pangolin. However, the illicit global trade in pangolins is still expanding.

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