It’s Time for a Pangolin Emoji
The world’s most trafficked mammal deserves global digital recognition.
There’s a 🦖dinosaur emoji, a 🐉dragon emoji, even a 🦄unicorn emoji but a pangolin – a living, endangered species
that actually exists – still doesn’t have an emoji!
We at Pangolin Africa are reapplying to Unicode to right that wrong … and we need your help!
Was there ever an Emoji?
Back in 2019, a pangolin emoji was proposed to the Unicode Consortium (the global organisation that approves all emojis), but it was rejected. Back then, most people didn’t even know what a pangolin was.
Fast forward to 2020 and suddenly the pangolin’s name was everywhere as it was associated with the coronavirus outbreak in the wet markets of Wuhan. For the first time millions of people learnt about this gentle creature and the fight to protect it, but for all the wrong reasons.
Since then, the pangolin has become a global symbol of endangered wildlife and resilience. It’s time Unicode gave it the recognition it deserves as a tiny icon which represents an entire conservation story.
What Stands Between Pangolins and an Emoji?
Our research indicates that submitting a petition or launching a social media campaign with a catchy hashtag
will have zero impact on Unicode’s decision making process. Instead, they simply look at the searches on Google to see whether
or not there is enough public interest in a particular character or subject to warrant and emoji.
Unicode evaluates:
• Google Search volume and long-term trends
• Google Image and Video search metrics
• Sustained website traffic
• Comparative data against similar approved animals
• Publicly documented screenshots and analytics
Look at the below graph from Google Trends, you can see the spike of interest in pangolins around the pandemic.
We need to drive search volumes UP now for the right reasons.
In short: we must prove that there is a genuine interest in the pangolin and it definitely warrants an emoji
How You Can Help!
Voting has opened – choose your favourite Emoji design
We’ve shortlisted the designs. Now it’s your turn to choose your top 3.
The winning design will be submitted to the Unicode Consortium for consideration as an official emoji.
It takes less than a minute, and helps shine a spotlight on the world’s most trafficked mammal.
Voting is open until 31 May 2026, and anyone may vote (but only once).
A Last Word …
Although social media campaigns will not form part of Unicode’s decision making process, we still ask you to share this campaign with your friends, family and colleagues to get the word out. Get your class at school to design the emoji, encourage your colleagues to Google “pangolin” and watch the Eye of the Pangolin video, every effort counts!