As a boy, Thai Van Nguyen spent his days exploring the forest near his home in Vietnam’s Ninh Bình Province. He grew up just outside of Cúc Phương National Park, Vietnam's first national park and largest nature reserve. His proximity to the forest fostered a connection to nature that at 38 he still carries with him. But it also gave him an up-close view of the perils that wildlife face in Vietnam. Poaching, trafficking, deforestation, and other human pressures played out right before his eyes. When Nguyen was eight years old, he watched a group of his fellow villagers dig out a pangolin mother and baby from their burrow and kill them to keep as hunting trophies. Pangolins, a scaly mammal native to Africa and Asia, are the most trafficked mammals on Earth. Their scales are erroneously believed to have medicinal value in many traditional cultures, and their meat is prized as a source of protein in rural communities. When threatened, they curl up into a tight ball, making them easy pickings for would-be predators, including humans. As a result, all eight subspecies of pangolin are at risk of extinction due to poaching. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list, their conservation status ranges from vulnerable to critically endangered.