Baillie, Jonathan

Pangolins, or scaly anteaters, are unique in being the world's only truly scaly mammals, but are in dire need of urgent conservation action. Pangolins have been subject to very little conservation or natural history research, and consequently, little is known about their biology, ecology, and conservation needs. It was in response to this predicament that the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group was re-formed in 2012.

This report contains the most comprehensive assessment of the status and trends of the world's invertebrates conducted to date. It introduces the staggering diversity of invertebrates, ranging from microscopic zooplankton to giant squid. Together these organisms represent around 80% of the known species on our planet.

This report has been produced by ZSL in collaboration with WWF, IUCN and SSC. It considers for the first time the current status and trends of global vertebrates in the context of human pressures, with a particular focus on threatened, novel and evolutionary distinct species.

The "1994 Red List of Threatened Animals" was a major advance on its predecessors in clarity of layout and amount of information presented. This is taken further in the 1996 edition, which is also the first global compilation to use the complete new IUCN red list category system. Also for the first time, all mammal species have been assessed. This group and the birds are the only taxonomic classes where a comprehensive evaluation has been made.