Protecting Pangolins

As night fell, Harriet Nimmo and an armed guard walked quietly through Kruger National Park in South Africa. They were protecting a small wild animal called a pangolin as it fed on ants. This shy nocturnal mammal is the size of a housecat. There are eight types of pangolins in Africa and Asia.

They look like anteaters but are covered with protective scales. The pangolin walking with Nimmo, named Aura, was rescued from captors by police. They brought Aura to Rhino Revolution, where Nimmo worked. Nimmo is a conservationist who helps care for rescued wild animals. At the time, Rhino Revolution worked to save not only rhinos, but pangolins too.

Unfortunately, the scaly armor that covers Aura and all pangolins cannot protect them from poachers. These people traffic, or illegally trade, wildlife. Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world. They are prized for their meat and scales. Millions are captured or killed each year. But conservation groups are trying to save pangolins from extinction.

Rescued pangolins have often been so neglected that they are close to dying. Veterinary nurses care for them around the clock. They give the sick animals liquid food through tubes inserted into the pangolins’ stomachs. Once the pangolins regain strength, rescuers take them on walks to find ants. A pangolin eats more than 2 pounds of ants per night.

Pangolins refuse to eat in captivity, so those walks are important. “Rehabilitating them until they’re healthy enough to be returned to the wild is hard,” says Ray Jansen. He’s a zoologist with the African Pangolin Working Group that focuses its work on saving pangolins.

The pangolin has unique features. It has a sticky tongue that’s nearly as long as its body. It uses this tongue to slurp up ants and termites that it digs up with its strong front claws. The pangolin is the only mammal with scales instead of fur. The scales are made of keratin, the same material found in human hair and fingernails.

When threatened, pangolins curl into a ball. Their scales are a defense against predators like lions and tigers that want to eat them. But this adaptation makes them easy to catch. When a pangolin curls up, a poacher can simply pick it up.

All eight types of pangolin are under threat in the wild. Laws protect them. But countless pangolins are sold illegally every year. The number rescued is small, but every pangolin saved is important. “We have to treat every single one in our care as if it’s the last,” says Jansen.

Aura spent three months with Rhino Revolution. When she was returned to the wild, she wore a tracking device. This lets rescuers follow her movements. “We spotted her in the bush a month after her release,” says Nimmo. “She looked good.”