Why is it so difficult to build support for species people don’t recognize, like the pangolin?

Ranjisha Raghavan
Dec 6, 2023
3 min read

If you’ve worked in wildlife conservation or anti-trafficking, you’ve probably faced this.

You’re trying to protect a species most people don’t even recognize.

You explain the urgency.

You share the data.

You run campaigns.

But the response feels limited.

Not because the work isn’t important.

But because the species itself feels unfamiliar.

The pangolin stayed with me for this reason

When I first began studying pangolins, I realised how unfamiliar they felt, even to me.

And that surprised me.

Because this is the most trafficked mammal in the world.

And yet, it doesn’t stay in people’s minds the way it should.

That made me pause.

If the species itself doesn’t feel familiar, how do we expect someone to stay connected to its story?

What changed while working on this piece

When I started working on my pangolin painting, I approached it like I do every species.

I researched its behaviour, its habitat, and what it goes through in the wild and in trafficking.

But something still felt distant.

So I shifted my focus. Not just on what it looks like.

But on what it’s going through.

What the painting became

In the artwork, the pangolin is observing an hourglass.

There’s a magnifying glass in its hand.

Time is slipping.

And it’s watching.

That image stayed with me while I was creating it.

Because it felt very close to what is actually happening.

We are studying. We are observing. We are aware.

But time is still passing.

What I noticed when people interacted with this work

When this piece has been shared or seen in conversations,

people don’t begin with data.

They pause.

They look closer.

And they ask:

“What is it looking at?”

“Why the hourglass?”

“What’s happening to this species?”

That moment is important.

Because for the first time,

the pangolin is not unfamiliar anymore.

It becomes something they are trying to understand.

And more importantly,

they remember it later.

Why awareness alone doesn’t lead to support

In anti-trafficking work, awareness is only the beginning.

The real question is:

👉 Does it stay?

Because what usually happens is:

People feel something briefly
They understand the issue
And then they move on

And that affects:

Donor conversations
Campaign recall
Long-term engagement

Why this matters for your work

For species like pangolins, the challenge isn’t just protection.

It’s visibility.

If people don’t:

Recognize the species
Understand what it’s facing
Or remember it

it becomes much harder to:

Build support
Sustain campaigns
And raise funds consistently

How this can be used in your work

This doesn’t have to stay conceptual.

Art can be used in very practical ways:

As a starting point in awareness campaigns, where people engage before information is introduced
In donor conversations, helping them remember the species beyond numbers
In exhibits or conservation spaces, where curiosity leads to deeper engagement
In presentations and reports, making complex realities easier to understand and retain