Pangolin
Smutsia temminckii
Status: Vulnerable. Of the eight pangolin species, all of them are protected and range from being vulnerable to critically endangered. They are all at risk because of poaching for traditional medicine, or ornamental trade, as well as habitat loss.
The reclusive and nocturnal pangolins are rarely seen, and this heightens the mythical shroud around their existence.
Elders of the VaJindwi in Zimbabwe have been reminding people of the old myths and beliefs that lead people to see the beauty of and to instill a sense of reverent respect for the creatures, in the face of poaching. The VaJindwi belief system and practices embrace mysticism, and recognizes evil spirits as well as the benevolent ones of animals and plants. To come across a pangolin is good luck, and the number of steps it takes indicates the number of good years that person will have. To injure or kill one is taboo.
Anthropologist Martin Walsh writes of Tanzanian Sangu belief that pangolins fell from the sky (uwulanga) to the earth, sent by Sangu ancestors, to bond to a human. The human and pangolin then undergo a series of rites of seclusion, singing, and dancing. If the pangolin sheds tears while dancing it is an omen of good rains to come in the next year. Dry eyes mean drought, and the savannahs and all the creatures that live upon them suffer if the rainfall is sparse. At the culmination of the ritual, the person and the pangolin were led to the river by the elders, and the pangolin ritually sacrificed.
References:
Mambondiyani, Andrew. "Zimbabwe's chiefs revive tradition to save the country's last pangolins". Mongabay Series: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, July 2018.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/zimbabwes-chiefs-revive-tradition-to-save-the-countrys-last-pangolins/
Walsh, Martin T. "THe Ritual Sacrifice of Pangolins Among the Sangu of South-west Tanzania". Bulletin of the International Committee on Urgent Anthropological and Ethnological Research, 37/38: 155-170, 1995/96. https://www.pangolinsg.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/06/Walsh-1996-Ritual-Sacrifice-of-Pangolins-among-Sangu-of-Southwest-Tanzania.pdf