A firestorm of poaching and illegal trade is raging around the African pangolin. These shy, defenseless animals suddenly find themselves in the spotlight as they’re pushed to the edge of extinction. They are being trafficked to the Far East in staggering numbers, and yet this curious little creature is one of the most elusive on the planet. Many people have never heard of it, very few have seen it in the wild and it does not survive in captivity.

Due to an increasingly insatiable market in Asia, their pangolins have disappeared almost entirely. They are poached and killed for the supposed medicinal value of their scales and as a dining delicacy where a single serving of pangolin meat can cost up to US $3000. The decimation of the Asian species has seen a dramatic spike in demand for African pangolins.

Two award-winning South African filmmakers are on a mission to capture the African pangolin on film in the hope that if people come to know it, they will care enough to help end this horrific trade. They travel the continent of Africa to track down these beguiling creatures about which so little is known, aiming to learn from those caring for and studying them. They encounter many who have fallen under the strange and mesmerizing spell cast by this animal, and wonder at this powerful attraction, questioning the nature of human's relationship to, and with, the wild creatures of the earth.

Eye of the Pangolin Filmmaker Interview with Director Bruce Young!