Let's Build Pangolin Rehabilitation Houses!

Hi everyone! While I don’t fundraise often, I enjoy it immensely so I have decided to start an annual campaign for a cause that I feel passionately about.

This year, we’re going to help the most trafficked animal on the planet. And this is how we’re going to do it.

I had the recent fortune and opportunity to volunteer with an incredible organization in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Umoya Khulula is one of the only permitted wildlife rehabilitation centers in the country. Run by an extremely knowledgeable and inspiring woman, Emma De Jager, her family, and her hard-working staff, this center takes in countless native South African species and rehabilitates them for release into the wild. During my short stay, I was able to see and work with aardwolves, warthogs, sable antelope, blesbok, red hartebeest, caracals, mongooses (banded and dwarf), and pangolins. PANGOLINS (not penguins).

***Disclosure: Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre is not open to the public and all pangolins are housed off-site at a secure, undisclosed location for the protection of the animals and staff.***

I love pangolins. They are everything that inspires me in the animal world - they’re quirky, unique, charismatic, misunderstood and a biological wonder that looks like a walking artichoke. They’re also the only mammal covered in scales. Their very existence deserves to be protected.

Here’s the thing with pangolins. For several years they have been the single most trafficked animal in the world. Eastern medicine and a largely Asian-driven market place value in their scales, which are made of keratin, like rhino horn (and your fingernails). Keratin apparently cures cancer, works as an aphrodisiac, can find you a spouse, write your English essay and go to the dentist for you… I don’t think I have to state that keratin does none of these things.

Pangolins, wearing the equivalent of an armor of expensive nail clippings, are suffering and being killed for no reason. Likely tens of thousands a year. One of the leading causes of death is electrocution due to the large number of wildlife fences bordering most properties in South Africa. And they are unfortunately easy to poach. They have no teeth. Their defense mechanism is to curl up into a ball… which is great when you’re trying to not get eaten by a leopard, and not so great when you essentially package yourself into a to-go-box for easy transport. Also not great when you curl up around an electric fence wire that continues to shock you.

It takes an immense number of resources to rehabilitate pangolins as they are extremely vulnerable to stress. They only eat ants and termites. Foraging is an important aspect of their metabolism, so you can’t just put a plate of ants in front of them and expect them to thrive. There’s also the challenge of gathering the estimated 20,000 ants that each pangolin needs to eat per day… Rehabilitation involves walking them for 5+ hours a day. It means expensive critical care formula that isn’t even made within the country and has to be imported. It means high-level security to keep them and the people working with them safe.

But it also means an incredible reward. Rehabilitated pangolins finding burrows, feeding, growing, and reproducing. In the wild! Genuine boots-on-the-ground successful conservation efforts.

Umoya Khulula is on track to take in twice as many pangolins this year as last. This was proven during my volunteer stay - in two weeks' time, the number of pangolins doubled. Emma has one of the highest release rates, and their successful return to the bush reflects the time and effort put into each pangolin.

I never dreamt that I would be able to see a pangolin, let alone work with one. What struck me the most is how much personality they have. They remind me of dogs. They look at you quizzically, they’re escape artists, and they are essential to their ecosystem. Next time you see me, ask me to tell you how I was outsmarted by one… nature always finds a way to humble you.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. In lieu of physical gifts this year, I have made a donation to Umoya Khulula in honor of the hospitals where I’ve worked (sorry guys, no sweet treats this year!). I humbly ask you to support me in raising the tangible funds needed to build more enclosures so Emma and her team can continue to help these guys. They deserve it.