The Chinese government recently raised the protection level of Chinese pangolins to the top level, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration announced on Friday. 

The species, which used to be at the second level under state protection, is now listed among the top-protected animals.

According to a national wildlife survey conducted by forestry authorities in the 1990s, there were some 60,000 Chinese pangolins in 11 provinces, including Yunnan, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces. In past decades, the species' population has witnessed a sharp decline due to habitat destruction, rampant poaching and smuggling. 

In 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature placed Chinese pangolins on the Red List of Endangered Species, as a team of experts believed the population had dropped by 90 percent over the previous decade.