1 December 2022

OUR NEW PANGOLIN POLL RAISES FUNDS & AWARENESS

What would you call our new baby pangolin? Born Free launches new poll to support our Sangha Pangolin Project colleagues and help save the pangolin.

Please enter our poll below to find a name for our new pangopup, recently rescued by our Sangha Pangolin Project colleagues in Central African Republic, when found alone in a swamp.

The rare infant needs 24/7 care in a small hospital funded by Born Free, and receives regular bottle-feeds of a special milk formula. Aided by local tribespeople, he will gradually be prepared for life back in the forest. With our help, Sangha Pangolin Project has successfully rehabilitated more than 100 orphaned and injured white- and black-bellied pangolins since 2013, who are monitored by Ba’aka trackers as they return to the wild.

Thanks to supporters, especially our Pangolin Family adopters, Born Free is devoted to pangolin conservation and rescue, and fights their exploitation. Our team has just returned from an important global wildlife meeting in Panama City, where countries were encouraged to take stronger action to end trade in pangolins. Pangolins are the most illegally hunted and traded mammal on the planet and these gentle creatures are killed for their scales – used in traditional Asian medicine, and meat – prized as a delicacy. More than a million pangolins were trafficked in the past decade, with thousands more caught and killed by poachers every year. In 2021, at least 23.5 tonnes of pangolin parts were illegally sold and today, all eight species are threatened with extinction, due to this devastating trade.

Unchanged for 70 million years, pangolins are the only mammal with scales. Made of keratin, found in human nails, these scales are erroneously believed by some to have magical, medicinal properties. Curled in a spikey ball, pangolins’ body armour protects against lions and tigers. But these shy, nocturnal mammals have no defence against people – their most deadly predator. Easy to capture, they’re a prime target for traffickers eager to make huge profits.

As well as rescuing orphans, Sangha Pangolin Project is devoted to education and conservation, and their team carries out important ecological research. After bottle-feeding, rescued orphans are gradually introduced to solid food, namely ant eggs and mealworms, before graduating to up to 20,000 ants a day. Human contact is reduced and daily forest walks introduced, with orphans being encouraged to tree climb and increase time in forest. They are finally returned entirely to wild, but are monitored by local tribespeople employed by Sangha Pangolin Project as they adapt to their new life.

You can enter our poll above to name the new baby pangolin and adopt our Pangolin Family today.