The pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal. It is covered in scales, armed with a tongue half the length of its body, and capable of forming a ball so impenetrable that lions give up. It makes no sound. It asks for nothing. And it is vanishing.

In this episode of I Am Tourism Stories, Toby Jermyn — co-founder of Pangolin Africa and founder of Pangolin Photo Safaris — tells us everything the tourism industry needs to know about this extraordinary animal, why it sits at the centre of a thriving safari business, and what operators and guides are still getting dangerously wrong at pangolin sightings.

Toby has spent nearly three decades in southern Africa. He drove for two years across the continent teaching himself wildlife photography. He built a photography safari company from a campfire conversation. He launched a nonprofit funded entirely by tourism revenue. And now he wants to put a pangolin on your land.

What You Will Hear in This Episode

The pangolin itself — what makes it unlike any other animal on the planet, the mythology surrounding it across African cultures, and why a single stressful sighting can cost it its territory permanently.

Photography as conservation — how putting a camera in a guest’s hand changes everything they notice, and why baboons are secretly the best subject on safari.

Built by tourism, for tourism — how Pangolin Photo Safaris went from selling to hotels who ignored them to 95% direct bookings driven entirely by YouTube.

Pangolin Real Estate — the world-first launch of A Place for Pangolins, inviting reserves, lodges, farms and landowners to register as official release sites for rehabilitated pangolins.

The missing emoji — why there is a dinosaur, a dodo and a unicorn emoji but no pangolin, and how a five-second search could help change that.