Pangolin Rescue Center Reminds Us That the Animals Are Not to Blame
By: Jessica Scott-Reid
Tags: Animals, Pangolin, Sanctuary Stories, Wildlife, Coronavirus

Pangolin Rescue Center Reminds Us That the Animals Are Not to Blame

It is the exploitation of threatened animals like Polly which likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic; advocates hope it will be a wake-up call

Polly, a pangolin at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. Photos provided by SVW

To those of us in the Western world, the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it an introduction to an animal many had never before heard of: the pangolin. “Some western countries, even South American, they do not know about the pangolins,” says Dung Nguyen, communications officer at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW). “When we talk about the pangolin, some people say: ‘Penguin?,’” she laughs.

Recently, however, pangolins are making headline news around the world, due to their possible connection to the origins of the novel coronavirus. But Nguyen wants the world to understand that pangolins are not the ones at fault. Rather, she says, it is the trafficking of pangolins by humans, that is at the real root of this pandemic.

Due to their shy and timid nature, pangolins are especially easy to catch. “When they are threatened, they just curl as a ball, a very little one, and they don’t run away.”

SVW is a non-government organization working to rescue, rehabilitate and protect endangered wildlife in Vietnam. The group works with a number of small carnivores, including civets and otters, but focuses especially on pangolins. “Why the pangolins,” Nguyen explains, “is because pangolins are critically endangered in Vietnam. They are the most trafficked mammal on earth — not only in Vietnam — on earth.”

About 15 years ago, pangolins were abundant in the forests of Vietnam, but now, says Nguyen, “they are already gone.” Due to their shy and timid nature, pangolins are especially easy to catch. “When they are threatened, they just curl as a ball, a very little one,” she describes, “and they don’t run away.” Though their hard scales work as armor to protect them from predators such as lions and tigers, says Nguyen, “they cannot protect them from humans.”

Polly, curled up.

Pangolins have long been hunted, captured and sold in various parts of China and Vietnam, “not only for the meat, but also the scales,” says Nguyen. “And now, all the parts of the pangolin [are sold]; even the snout is used for jewelry,” she says, adding the animals are also used in winemaking, and some traditional medicines, often for male virility. “So now the price of the pangolin is very expensive.”

It is this financial motivation driving the market for pangolins. “For the local people, if they catch a pangolin, the money they can get can set them for a year,” Nguyen explains. And for the buyers, there is a level of status associated with consuming the animal. “They want to spend their money to try something new, different,” she says, “before others try it, or before it goes extinct. They don’t care how it is affecting the environment.”

Those working with Save Vietnam Wildlife certainly care, and at their two rescue centers in Vietnam, they are working hard to rehabilitate rescued pangolins, and releasing them back into the ecosystem that so relies on them. “We have no power to catch the traders or hunters,” says Nguyen, “so after we receive a call from the police, we will come and rescue the animals and bring them back to our center.” There, she says, the vet and care teams are the first point of contact for each animal. Then, when the animal is well enough, they are sent to a semi-wild area, a mix of natural environment and continued human care, “to make sure the animals can live by themselves in the wild,” she says. The animals that make it, are then released.

Baby Kim.

Some rescued pangolins don’t make it back into the wild though, either due to permanent conditions that make them unable to be released, like Polly (symbolically adoptable here) who arrived missing a front paw, or because they do not survive, like baby Kim. Kim was rescued from traffickers at only a few days old, and though SVW worked tirelessly to rehabilitate her, Nguyen reports, “she died after more than one year in captivity.” Compared with other species, she says, “the survival rate of baby pangolins [in captivity] is too low, especially for ones losing their mom.”

“If we put a lot of animals together at the same time, especially wild animals, some viruses will transfer to different animals.

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen wants people to understand that the pangolin’s connection to the virus is not about the animal at all, but rather, “about the humans’ behavior.” Transporting and confining pangolins with other animals is the real concern. “If we put a lot of animals together at the same time, especially wild animals, some viruses will transfer to different animals. So the [pangolin] wine [for example], when people consume it, it’s really risky.”

Not only is consumption of wildlife risky for humans, Nguyen adds, but also for the environment, as it negatively impacts biodiversity, and throws off ecological balance. “Pangolins are ant eaters and termite eaters. If it wasn’t for the pangolins, the ants would be much more [abundant],” she says.

Polly at the rescue center.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, China has now banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. Nguyen calls the ban “really helpful,” and says SVW has not received any reports of illegal trafficking since it was put in place. However, she says, “We need time to ensure [real change in the culture of eating wild animals] happens.”

For now, she describes her perspective as cautiously optimistic.