A wild Malayan pangolin has been caught on camera in Yunnan Province, southwest China. It is the first image taken in China since a Malayan pangolin was reported in 2005.

The image was obtained during a population and habitat survey of wild pangolin, said Hua Yan, an official with the pangolin conservation research center under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The image, taken in October 2021 by an infrared camera, features a pangolin moving on a tree in Tongbiguan Nature Reserve in Yingjiang County, Yunnan. Its appearance and behaviour are consistent with those of Malayan pangolins.

"The images directly prove the distribution of Malayan pangolins in Yingjiang," Hua said.

Due to excessive hunting, global climate changes and habitat loss, wild stocks of pangolins plummeted sharply. In 2020, China upgraded all species belonging to the pangolin genus from the national second-class protected wild animals to the first-class.