Скачать или смотреть Pangolin Conservation In Namibia

Despite being the most trafficked animal in the world, there is surprisingly little known about pangolins. Thousands of pangolins are poached and killed every year. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine, and their meat is a delicacy among some of the wealthy elite in China and Vietnam.

The reason why we joined Kelsey on one of her trips was because of the exciting news that she GPS-tagged the first resident Temminck’s pangolin in a seasonal wetland ecosystem. This was also the first resident pangolin in Namibia tagged with an iridium satellite GPS transmitter. Sadly this was the same pangolin that evaded us. As the transmitters cannot transmit coordinates too deep underground and transmissions happen over timed intervals, the area where the pangolins are is known, but not necessarily where exactly they are.

Interesting data has already been gathered on this particular male pangolin. It has a much larger range than the other pangolins Kelsey has been monitoring in central Namibia. It covered over 60 kilometres in two months, but not in a dispersal pattern – which means the area that it has been utilising can be considered a home range.

A follow up visit from the team in January 2023, has shown that the raising awareness among the community members have been very successful. Through interviews with community, efforts to incorporate them in conservation efforts have proven successful as they have vowed to protect pangolins and work together with PCRF to find and tag more.

#pangolins #conservation #namibia