Super rare Pangolin found!!

Huge (on a conservationist’s scale) sighting yesterday!

One of our guests, Scott K., spotted something odd-looking in the grass while out on safari. Our ranger Themba couldn’t believe his eyes! A super-rare Pangolin! He radioed in all other game drivers, and within seconds they all responded, amazed by this news. What an opportunity to show our guests this rarest of all sightings. This was to be the talk of the day, as most rangers, even many of those with decades of experience, have ever seen a Pangolin in their whole lives. That’s how rare one of those sightings is. Within 12 months, however, this has been our second sighting, so that goes a long way to show how deep and wide the wildlife spectrum is on our reserve.

Pangolin sighting
Pangolin sighting

So why are these sightings so rare? Well, one of the reasons is that they are rare themselves. They are poached and hunted for their scales, which, surprise surprise (not!) are considered valuable in “traditional” (ie. dumb) Chinese medicine. So yes, yet another animal that bites the dust because of someone’s lack of education and lack of sympathy for nature. Enough said.

Pangolins are also called scaly anteaters, which is what they are, but their most popular name comes from the Malay word “penguling”, which means translated “something that rolls up”, and that’s also something they definitely do. On the sighting yesterday, this Pangolin did the usual, and rolled himself up to defend himself (or herself?).