sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. The Sunda pangolin's main predators are humans, tigers, and the clouded leopard. Conservation Pangolins as a family are among the most heavily poached and exploited protected animals. Like other pangolin species, the Sunda pangolin is hunted for its skin, scales, and meat, used in clothing manufacture and traditional medicine. Scales are made into rings as charms against rheumatic fever, and meat is eaten by indigenous peoples. Despite enjoying protected status almost everywhere in its range, illegal international trade, largely driven by Chinese buyers, has led to rapidly decreasing population numbers. The Sunda pangolin is currently considered to be critically endangered. As of 2016, all pangolin species are listed on CITES Appendix I, which prohibits commercial international trade of wild-caught specimens or their body parts. China raised the protection status of all pangolin species to the highest level in 2020. Health A metagenomic study published in 2019 previously revealed that SARS-CoV, the strain of the virus that causes SARS, was the most widely distributed coronavirus among a sample of Sunda pangolins. On 7 February 2020, it was announced that researchers from Guangzhou had discovered a pangolin sample with a viral nucleic acid sequence "99% identical" to SARS-CoV-2. When released, the results clarified that "the receptor-binding domain of the S protein of the newly discovered Pangolin-CoV is virtually identical to that of 2019-nCoV, with one amino acid difference." Pangolins are protected under Chinese law, but their poaching and trading for use in traditional Chinese medicine remains common. Pangolin coronaviruses found to date only share at most 92% of their whole genomes with SARS-CoV-2, making them less similar than RaTG13 to SARS-CoV-2. This is insufficient to prove pangolins to be the intermediate host; in comparison, the SARS virus responsible for the 2002–2004 outbreak shared 99.8% of its genome with a known civet coronavirus. References External links Sunda pangolin at Ecology Asia Sunda pangolin at Animal Diversity Web WWF & TRAFFIC Report: Pangolin trade in Sabah (PDF) WWF News: Seized notebooks give unique insight into scale of illicit pangolin trade Manis Mammals of Southeast Asia Myrmecophagous mammals Mammals of Borneo Mammals of Brunei Mammals of Cambodia Mammals of China Mammals of Indonesia Mammals of Laos Mammals of Malaysia Mammals of Myanmar Mammals of Singapore Mammals of Thailand Mammals of Vietnam Mammals described in 1822 Critically endangered fauna of Asia Critically endangered fauna of Indonesia