A worthwhile wait.

1930
Always be yourself, except if you can be a pangolin, then always be a pangolin.-Anon

 

 

 

For more than 2 years I have been contributing back page articles to this magazine and I have also completed a couple of online courses with them.

My biggest Wildlife Campus achievement to date?

Probably the fact that I started a course with them about 20 years ago…and I have yet to complete it! FGASA Level1. I started it so long ago that the course has changed its name!

A version of this article first appeared in The WildlifeCampus magazine in April 2020.

 

 

 

A 53-year wait FINALLY comes to an end. You can just make out the pangolin in the grass behind me.

Which one of the following is real?

Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, Unicorns, or Pangolins? One of them has been on top of my WLWL (Wild Life Wish List) since 1966, when my 13th birthday gift was a trip to the Kruger National Park. It was then that my life-long love of wildlife was kindled and the flames have been fanned over the intervening years.

Every time I have visited a Lodge and the Field Guides enquire about favourites, “Pangolin” is the first word out of my mouth. That changed on a recent trip when I broke with my self-imposed tradition and I requested Hyena instead. Perhaps it was a way of not tempting the pangolin gods and then perhaps, just perhaps my wish to see one would be granted.

 

 

 

We had started a morning drive when a garbled call came in over the radio.

Our field guide, our tracker, and I all thought we had heard the word “Penguin”. But how would you spot an Antarctic creature in the middle of the South African bush? “Repeat please” was the immediate instruction. “PANGOLIN” was the response. STOP THE VEHICLE!  Was my dream finally about to become reality? Nothing ventured, nothing gained as the game vehicle was turned around and we set off in the direction of the sighting.

My first question to the guide was “How far”? as I did not want to get my hopes up. “About 20 minutes”, was the response.

I was not too hopeful as in 20 minutes this mystical creature could vanish down a disused termite mound and my seemingly never-ending search would continue.

Finally, we arrived, and the guide who had called in the sighting pointed excitedly to a spot under some branches…I held my breath as I peered into the undergrowth. 53 years of waiting  had finally came to an end! There it was! Curled up and trying to make itself as inconspicuous as possible. The most trafficked animal on the planet lay hidden in the undergrowth almost within touching distance.

 

 

 

I see a snout…

Eventually it uncurls and starts show its face!

Although the front feet have several huge claws, those are used for digging and not as a defense. Their major form of self-protection, rolling into a tight ball, is also their biggest weakness. When they are in this position, they can be picked up and placed in a container without any resistance.

I have subsequently discovered that if they close their tail on a hand or an arm they can exert enough force to make the trapped human cry out in pain. This happened to a wildlife vet recently and the pangolin had to be sedated in order to release the vet from its grasp.

Still uncertain of the threat posed by those at the sighting, it rolled into a partial ball and ended up looking like a giant artichoke.

 

 

 

Their name, Pangolin, is derived from the Malay word ‘pengguling’, which means ‘rolling up’. This elusive mammal is, unfortunately, on the brink of extinction and has been classified as Critically Endangered, mainly because it is the most trafficked of all the wildlife species. They are been taken out of the wild at the rate of almost 1 every 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Their scales are not as valuable as rhino horn ($6000 per kg) but can fetch more than $3000 per kilogram on the black market. They are utilized in both local and international traditional medicine markets. Being made of keratin, the same as our fingernails, they have NO known medicinal properties at all. But that does not stop the poachers from catching and killing them for both their meat ($300 per kilogram) and the scales. The latter, dried into a powder, supposedly helps with a variety of ailments, from lactation difficulties to arthritis.

The animals are worth their weight in gold and when I was informed what an entire animal could fetch, I was dumbfounded.

 

 

 

This animal had been on top of my list for so long that there is not even a number two to take its place. I was also concerned that it would stay under the bush indefinitely and a small portion of the pangolin was all that I would see. However, once all the vehicles and their guests had left the area, a tiny face slowly peered out of the undergrowth. Would it emerge? I held my breath…

Knowing how much I wanted to spend extended time, the field guide left me and a tracker at the sighting while she took American guests off to see a large herd of buffalo that held NO interest for me at this point

Thus, I was able to spend 90 minutes alone at the sighting.

 

 

 

Finally, it crept out of the safety of the branches and proceeded to scuttle across in front of me. I could have wept. Not only did I get to spend time with it, but to be this close was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I am both grateful and blessed to have had this opportunity to finally see my ‘unicorn’ and share the experience with like-minded people.

 

 

 

If you want to do an online nature/hospitality course, this should be your go-to website. Click on the logo above to visit their website and enroll in the course of your dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

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