The eight-week-old pup is an incredible result of an ambitious conservation project run by AndBeyond in conjunction with the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG), the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital and the Humane Society International (HSI) Africa.
Launched in mid-2019, the initiative has seen the release of a number of pangolins retrieved from poachers or illegal wildlife traffickers across South Africa in operations undertaken by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the APWG at AndBeyond Phinda, but this is the first successful birth.
On the verge of extinction, the pangolin is one of the most poached and trafficked creatures in the world, relentlessly pursued by those who seek to export it to markets in Asia where its scales are supposed, but unproven, to hold medicinal benefits, and its meat is coveted as a culinary delicacy.
In the build-up to World Pangolin Day on 15 February, AndBeyond will be hosting two online events to help bring awareness to the plight of the species and highlight the work of the team to keep the project going, along with other conservation projects across its lodges during the pandemic.
The first session, What is a pangolin and why should we care?, is on 11 February at noon, and part two, A pangolin’s Journey from rescue to rehabilitation, will be shown at 18 February, also at noon; both sessions will be shown as a live stream on the day on AndBeyond’s website.
One of the aims of the pangolin reintroduction project at AndBeyond Phinda is the establishment of a breeding nucleus from which to create future generations of pangolin, so the successful birth of a pup marks a significant milestone.
In Africa, over and above the huge losses due to poaching, the additional pressures of habitat loss, the local bush meat trade and traditional use of the mammal in African tribal dress and medicine have also seen their numbers decline dramatically.
