Rehabilitate & Monitor Rescued Pangolins

Wilma was confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade about 5 months ago. When she was rescued she was only weighing about 3.5kg and she is still very young. Thankfully her condition was better than most who are rescued so it is very likely that she was not held captive for long before she was found.

Studies have shown that pangolins need to have a body weight of at least 6kg for the best chance at a successful release, so with Wilma being so young we knew that she would be with us for quite a while. Wilma loves her daily walks in search of her favourite food, ants! She gets very impatient in the mornings if her walkers are not getting ready fast enough. If she is ready go out and start foraging she climbs thier legs asking to be picked up so she can be carried outside to start feeding.

When she wakes up she is taken to be weighed. Her start weight and her end of walk weight are compared to ensure she is feeding well whilst out. As their food is underground it is very difficult to see how much they are actually eating and so comparing start and end weights is the best way to find out more or less what they have eaten. Although she can have her bad days, like all of us she consumes on average between 100-150g of ants a day, which is ideal!

Over the past 5 months of rehabilitation she has been feeding very well and picking up weight nicely. She is now weighing in at about 5.5kg, so she only has another half a kilo to go and then she can begin the soft release stage of her rehabilitation. Half a kilogram might not sound like much, but when you are burning energy to fill up on about 100-150g a day and poop almost as much, it is a long and slow process.