(Note: Due to the sensitivity and risk with the Center’s pangolin work, 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.)

by Chelsea E. Anderson

As part of my 2% for Conservation certification this past year, I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre, a wildlife rehabilitation center in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre is one of the only permitted wildlife rehabilitation centers in that country. Run by an extremely knowledgeable and inspiring woman, Emma De Jager, along with her family and hard-working staff, this center takes in countless native South African species, rehabilitating them for release into the wild.

During my stay, I was able to see and work with aardwolves, warthogs, sable antelope, blesbok, red hartebeest, caracals, mongooses (banded and dwarf), and pangolins. 

ABOUT PANGOLINS (not penguins!)

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

I never dreamt that I would be able to see a pangolin, let alone work with one. They’re notoriously elusive in the bush, and even veteran rangers sometimes go a lifetime without seeing one. What struck me the most is how much personality they have. They remind me of dogs – looking at you quizzically, and they’re escape artists. I was outsmarted by one while walking him, as he darted into a burrow forcing me to wait for 3 hours for him to come out. It was only after he finished his renovation and nap of course that he rejoined me… nature always finds a way to humble you.

Unfortunately, for the last several years they have been the single most trafficked animal in the world. Eastern medicine – along with a largely Asian-driven market place – value their scales, which are made of keratin, like the rhino horn and your fingernails. Keratin is apparently believed to cure cancer, work as an aphrodisiac, 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 armour of expensive nail clippings, are suffering and being killed relentlessly - numbers are likely in the tens of thousands per year. One of the leading causes of death for this mammal is electrocution due to the large number of wildlife fences bordering most properties in South Africa. They are also sadly easy to poach. With no no teeth, their defense mechanism is to curl up into a ball… which works great when you’re trying to avoid being eaten by a leopard, but 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 continuously shocks you until it kills you.

COST OF SURVIVAL

It takes an immense number of resources and costs to protect and to rehabilitate pangolins as they are extremely vulnerable to stress. Although very little is known about them, they only eat ants and termites making foraging an important aspect of their metabolism. This means you can’t just put a plate of ants in front of them and expect them to thrive. There is an added challenge of gathering the tens of thousands of ants that a pangolin needs to eat per day… This is not realistic in captivity, even if temporary. Effective rehabilitation results in walking them for multiple hours per day so they can continue to forage on their own and maintain their instinctive feeding behaviors; this was one of our volunteer tasks. What a privilege to be able to spend this time in nature knowing that you are making a difference in the survival of not just one individual, but the species as a whole!

Pangolins are extremely costly to rehabilitate when you factor in medical expenses, rehabilitation, staff, tags, and release. Ultimately, it costs approximately R150,000 - 250,000 ($9,000 - $15,000) to rehabilitate a single pangolin. For the pangolins that are debilitated on arrival, they may require extended stays at the veterinary hospital and an expensive critical care formula that has to be imported. It also means expensive GPS tracking devices paird with high-level security to keep them and the people working with them safe. 

Emma, who founded the center, has an extremely high success rate for rehabilitating these difficult animals. Although nearly impossible to keep in captivity, she has managed to learn just how to treat them. Release locations are carefully selected to ensure safety for the rehabilitated pangolin. With their tracking devices, regular checks, and data collected by colleagues, the team can know that the pangolin are finding burrows, feeding, growing, and reproducing in the wild! This has been a genuine boots-on-the-ground successful conservation effort.

With their program, Umoya Khulua took in twice as many pangolins in 2022 as the previous year as was proven during my volunteer stay - in two weeks time, the number of pangolins doubled but the plight of this species is dire and this is just one facility working with this species. The number of successful releases to the bush reflects the time and effort needed to successfully conserve the species. I cannot stress the importance of the work that Umoya Khulula and its network of partners are doing. Thankfully, conservation efforts are ongoing across southern Africa and Asia.

My time at Umoya Khulua was eye-opening and complicated, as conservation efforts often are. While it may sound redundant and cliche, you cannot care about something about which you know nothing. If nothing else, hopefully, you now know this incredibly unique species exists, and many people are working very hard to ensure they stay with us!

To support ongoing pangolin rehab and protection, please consider making a donation here to build pangolin rehabilitation houses: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pangolin-rehabilitation

ABOUT CHELSEA E. ANDERSON

Chelsea E. Anderson, DVM, runs CEAvet, providing relief services to local and out-of-state veterinary hospitals. Conservation and philanthropy have always been an integral part of Dr. Anderson’s core values, both within and outside the veterinary field. Her passion for the outdoors started early, fishing and hiking with her family.

A 6-week trip to South Africa in 2009 through a college Wildlife Conservation course was the start of Dr. Anderson's international volunteer work. Since graduating from veterinary school at Cornell University, Dr. Anderson has worked and volunteered in several countries including Uganda, Liberia, India, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea, although she is grateful to now call Montana home.

Now that Dr. Anderson owns her own business, her goal is to incorporate those philanthropic values to be an active part of society that protects our planet and its creatures. While she hopes to continue international conservation and veterinary work in areas of need across the globe, she is most looking forward to growing roots with local conservation work.

Dr. Anderson has been 2% Certified since 2021; her work also supports Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Working Dogs for Conservation.