Not Just Skin-deep
Hunted for their meat and scales, pangolins remain the world’s most trafficked mammal – and it’s down to pioneering initiatives like and-Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve’s reintroduction project in South Africa to secure their long-term survival.
SO ELUSIVE IS the pangolin that it has been described as a master of disguise: in forests and grasslands, this timid, solitary and predominantly nocturnal animal could be mere metres away from you, and you’d never know. A creature of few sounds, all you might hear is its armour of overlapping scales – a layer that stretches from the top of its head to its tail – rubbing together as it walks or climbs.
When startled or frightened, a pangolin curls up into a ball, exposing its sharp scales to would-be predators while protecting vulnerable uncovered areas such as its soft underbelly. As the only mammal to be covered in scales instead of fur, the pangolin defence is employed successfully against natural predators including leopards, hyenas and pythons. But those same scales are what place pangolins in so much danger when facing their worst predator – mankind.
Pangolin scales are composed of keratin – the same fibrous structural protein that forms hooves, feathers, human hair and nails – and have no proven medicinal value. Despite this, in illegal wildlife trade markets, pangolins and their parts are sold not by the kilo, but by the gram – an indication of just how valuable they’re perceived to be. Fuelled by a voracious demand from Asian countries and increasingly from parts of Africa, the use of pangolins in traditional medicine, local spiritual ceremonies and as meat has led to them becoming the world’s most trafficked mammal.
As tempting as it might be to assume that the illegal wildlife trade is confined to a few countries, its networks are far more wide-reaching and insidious than that. In April 2019, Singapore Customs and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority seized two of the largest shipments of pangolin scales ever recorded: a staggering 26 tons, en route from Nigeria to Vietnam. The scales were estimated to have come from around 38,000 pangolins – an even more horrifying figure when you take into account that such seizures represent only 10 to 15 per cent of actual trafficking volumes.
With that in mind, it’s increasingly clear why all eight species of pangolins now appear on the International Union for Conservation of
Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Of the four pangolin species that occur in Asia, three are already classed as critically endangered. The remaining four – the white-bellied pangolin, giant pangolin, Temminck’s ground pangolin and black-bellied pangolin – are found in Africa and range from vulnerable to endangered. It’s a grim situation, particularly for an animal whose evolutionary origins date back to the time of the dinosaurs, around 85 million years ago.
The rapid depletion of the Asian pangolin population has meant that poachers and illegal wildlife traders have turned their attention to African pangolins, particularly over the past five years, which, coupled with the increasing loss of their natural habitat, spells bad news.
During an online panel discussion for World Pangolin Day 2021 in February, Les Carlisle, andBeyond’s group conservation manager, pointed out that our failure to take action would affect humans too. “When you look at our planet and its biodiversity, it’s important to understand that there are linkages we don’t know and don’t understand in the system.”
Using the analogy of a spider’s web, he explains: “If we start breaking the strands that support life on Earth, we spread the load to the next support strands, and eventually to the last strand. When one of those goes, the web of life as we know it will change. It could have unimaginable impact on us. Every breakage we make in this web has the potential to impact us and the ability of the system to sustain us.”
In the case of pangolins, their large front claws help turn soil, bury seeds for germination, and dig up millions of ants and termites for consumption
“We’re only scratching the iceberg of what we know about these extremely rare but bewitching mammals.”
Private Game Reserve in South Africa has embraced with its pangolin reintroduction programme. The effort involves the rehabilitation of traumatised pangolins and the reversal of local extinction. A pioneering project held in collaboration with the African Pangolin Working Group, Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital and Humane Society International-Africa, the goal is to re-establish the Temminck’s ground pangolin on Phinda’s 28,555-hectare reserve in its coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Results have been immensely encouraging. Last December marked the birth of the first wild pangolin pup in the province in decades, from where it had gone locally extinct.
“The pangolin conservation project is a groundbreaking attempt to establish how to create new sustainable populations using the confiscated survivors of the illegal trade as the source of the pangolins,” says Carlisle. “The exciting parts of this project are that it involves massive cooperation across many agencies and private sector organisations, and that is the only way conservation will succeed in the future. This type of cooperative project will influence pangolin conservation and population management in a positive way.”
The programme is not without its challenges: pangolins inevitably suffer physical and emotional damage at the hands of poachers, with some being burnt with cigarettes or forced to spend two weeks in a suitcase covered in excrement, without food or water. Rehabilitating rescued pangolins is a long, labour-intensive process that can take up to three months, during which they are encouraged to eat enough to regain their weight and monitored for underlying health issues, particularly a compromised immune system.
After reaching their goal weight and demonstrating that they can drink and forage independently, the pangolins are fitted with lightweight radio tracking and satellite tags, and released into Phinda’s vast wilderness, which is protected by 24-hour anti-poaching surveillance.
The tags make it easier for the reserve’s specialist conservation team to locate the pangolins for a general health check and to download critical research data. Guests are invited to take part in this experience. Prices start from 12,765 rands for a group of up to six, with all
“The pangolin conservation project is a groundbreaking attempt to establish how to create
new sustainable populations using the confiscated survivors of the illegal trade as the source
of the pangolins.”
proceeds directed towards the purchase of tags, equipment, veterinary costs and the care of the reserve’s pangolins.
Bearing in mind that the pandemic has left a sizeable chasm in the number of eco-tourists visiting Africa, it’s essential that funding and support for threatened species remain in place, even without the physical presence of tourists. “Never forget the power every individual has to raise awareness of the species and advocate for funding,” Carlisle states.
While there are undoubtedly other animals that also require saving, the pangolin has left the deepest impression in Carlisle’s 28 years with the andBeyond team. “The contradictions abound with pangolins: they’re shy, elusive and quiet when stressed, yet noisy and immensely strong when relaxed and foraging for their favourite supply of ants or termites. They’re mammals with scales like a reptile. While difficult to locate, they’re so easy to pick up if you manage to find one. The combination of all these factors makes them unlike any other creature that I have encountered, and makes saving them that much more compelling.”