Melanie Gosling
Environment Writer
A PANGOLIN, one of the world’s most threatened mammals because of the illegal wildlife trade, was seized by CapeNature officials in the northern suburbs and jetted up-country to a rehabilitation centre before being released into the wild.
After law enforcement officials had confiscated the pangolin – also known as a scaly anteater – CapeNature’s mammal ecologist Coral Birss and colleague Guy Palmer in CapeNature’s Stellenbosch office were asked to look after it until arrangements could be made to take it back to its natural habitat in the arid savannah region.
At first it curled itself into a ball as it does when threatened, but once it realised it was safe, it uncurled itself and began walking around.
“I had never seen a live pangolin. I don’t think many people will ever see one in the wild. They are the most bizarre creatures – they’re mammals, but don’t look anything like mammals. I didn’t know how to care for it so I immediately phoned the African Pangolin Group in Pretoria and Nicky Wright, of Free Me rehab centre. She gave me pointers, for instance, there is nothing you can feed it because it lives mainly on ants and they have a highly specialised way of eating, with a long tongue that is attached internally to its stomach. But she said it would probably need water which I should put in a flat tray, not a bowl, which I did, and it stood in the water and drank,” Birss said.
The confiscated pangolin, Smutsia temminckii, does not occur in the Western Cape.
Birss was then put in touch with The Bateleurs, a non-profit organisation of pilots who give their flying skills and their own aircraft to support conservation.
The pangolin was loaded on to an aircraft after a 24-hour stay at CapeNature, and a Bateleur pilot flew it to the rehabilitation centre. It was later released into the wild.
CapeNature did not want to disclose the place the animal was seized or released.
Although the incident occurred several weeks ago, CapeNature made it public only yesterday in order not to interfere with the investigation.
Pangolins are targeted by the illegal wildlife trade in Africa and abroad. Its meat is regarded as a delicacy in China and other parts of Asia, while the scales are used in the traditional medicine trade. The illegal trade, coupled with habitat destruction, has led to all eight species of pangolin to be classified by the IUCN as threatened. Two species are critically endangered.
Last April, a Chinese boat that ran aground on a coral reef in the Philippines was found to contain 10 tons of frozen pangolins, representing thousands of the animals. Trade in the four Asia species has been banned since 2002. The illegal trade has almost wiped out pangolins in China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
l Five suspects are due to appear in the Khayelitsha Regional Court tomorrow on charges relating to the illegal possession of the pangolin.