Pangolins are this unique little creature that happen to be the most trafficked animal in the world. Why? Chinese medicine. The Chinese believe their scales, which are simply made of keratin, (the same as our fingernails) have medicinal benefits. Pangolins are relatively easy to catch because they don't have any defense mechanisms except to curl up in a little ball. Sounds like a good plan to me, but it's not very effective when you can just pick up the little ball and walk away. They curl up in a ball to protect their soft tummy. You wouldn't think that a dinosaur looking creature would be soft to pet. Living on a diet of ants, these little creatures work diligently during the night to break termite mounds and eat them up.
Most people come to Africa and never see a pangolin close up. Occasionally we see someone on the side of the road, holding one upside-down by the tail, trying to sell it as bush meat. Even though it's illegal, when you live in a country where people are living day by day, you can't blame them for trying to sell whatever they can find to make some money. Some Americans were visiting Monrovia and Chad had some interaction with them. They had seen someone with a strange animal who was trying to get them to take it. Immediately he knew it was a pangolin. He told them if they could get the animal, he knew of an animal rescue organization that he could take it to.
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| Amazingly cute and cuddly |
Chad brought it home. We didn't think the pangolin would make it though the night. We coaxed it to drink some water. It didn't even curl-up in a ball or lay down. It just stopped moving. We left it and came back hours later to get it to drink again before we went to sleep. Not sure what we would find in the morning, we were thrilled to see it had moved and was now curled up. We continued to give it water to drink and Chad took it out for a "walk" to see if it would eat any bugs. We weren't really successful with that, but so happy that it lived for us to take it to the animal rescue organization. Turns out we didn't save just one pangolin because this little girl was pregnant! She's been released in the wild somewhere. We hope she is save with her little baby. It was an amazing experience to help save an animal and have the opportunity to observe a pangolin up close.
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| Pangolins curl up into a ball for protection and apparently to sleep. |
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| Hydration - the magic cure for man and beast |
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