Pangolins need world spotlight to survive

Reclusive, gentle and quick to roll up into a ball, pangolins keep a low profile.

But they are also the world's most heavily trafficked mammal, and experts at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species conference this week are ringing alarm bells over their survival.

Demand for pangolin meat and body parts has fueled a bloodbath, and driven the scale-covered, ant-eating mammal toward extinction.