Combining expertise and resources, a partnership between African Parks and the Tikki Hywood Foundation is helping to conserve one of Africa’s most critically endangered mammals – the pangolin. Joanna Craig, Funding and Reporting Manager in Matusadona National Park, Zimbabwe, joined the team on one of their monitoring missions and shared her experience with us.
We had come to a stop. Huddled under the shade of a tree with our heavy breathing temporarily held, we were listening hard for the tell-tale tick-tick-tick from the telemetry set. We had been hiking up the rising escarpment of Matusadona National Park, for close on two hours, following the beckoning electronic auditory throbs emitted by a device attached to the scales of an elusive pangolin.
We were searching for a single pangolin in particular, a young female recently released into the park and the 298th pangolin to come under the care of the Tikki Hywood Foundation, a non-profit wildlife organisation intent on seeing Zimbabwe’s only native pangolin species, the Temmnick’s Ground Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) remain off the extinction list. THT298, otherwise known as Mbeu, a Ndau word for the tiny tree seed she so resembled on her rescue, was released into the park six months earlier along with a second pangolin, Impi, ‘the Warrior’, a much larger and wide-ranging male around the same age.
From the word go, Impi set off to carve out a territory for himself, marching off high into the hills of Matusadona, leaving the project monitors and park rangers the arduous task of keeping up with his wanderings when they check in on his whereabouts every couple of days. Mbeu, on the other hand, hovers in the foothills, tentatively venturing to feed on ants she finds in the area she has claimed as her own. With her direction confirmed by the telemetry, we began following a dry and rocky watercourse towards the plateau. Finally, after hours of searching in the scorching heat, one of the rangers called out quietly: “Here, here she is.” One had to look hard amongst the boulders and rocks, but there, true to her bashful form, we found Mbeu fast asleep, hugging herself in the dark, protective, cool nook.
Impi and Mbeu are the first rescued pangolins to be released and tracked in this 1,470km2 protected area, enclosed by the watery expanse of Kariba’s lakeshore to the north, and community-owned land to the south. The Matusadona Pangolin Monitoring Programme, a partnership between the Tikki Hywood Foundation (THF) and Matusadona National Park and supported by the Pangolin Crisis Fund seeks to create an environment in which pangolins such as Impi and Mbeu can be released back into their natural environment.
When a pangolin in Zimbabwe is seized from the illegal wildlife trade, sometimes sick, often starved, it is taken into the custodianship of the THF when extra care is required. The THF team immediately gets to work ensuring the pangolin is healthy, self-sufficient, and rewilded. Both Impi and Mbeu were with poachers for about a week before they were rescued in separate sting operations that saved them from being illegally trafficked over the border. They arrived at the THF rehabilitation facility in Harare as pups, bare, pink, and clinging to their mothers. Impi and his mother fought to survive and were recovered weak and traumatised; the mother unable to offer the nourishment and security Impi needed. Taking on the role of surrogate mother, a member of the THF team provided artificial milk and 24-hour care for the baby. Having rejected her pup, Impi’s mother was released as soon as she was deemed healthy enough to do so. Mbeu’s mother had more strength to give and was able to nurse her pup for six months in the facility. Once Mbeu weaned, her mother, still wild and now healthy, was successfully released.
Impi spent two years in the THF rehabilitation facility. After he was nursed back to a healthy weight, the team began to introduce him to small, non-biting ants known as ‘fine ants’. He was also taken ‘hunting’ by his carer who would use a stick to unearth ants, encouraging him to do the same. In time, he learnt what all mothers teach their pangolin young: how to survive on ants, ant eggs, pupae and termites. Along with his confidence in foraging, Impi’s scales, which were initially malformed from a lack of mothers’ milk, quickly began to improve. Mbeu, on the other hand, was in THF care for just under a year, before the team was confident that she was strong enough and competent at foraging on her own to be released back into her natural habitat. With Impi also ready to make his way in the world, their releases coincided, and a flight was scheduled to Matusadona, to return to the two back into the habitat where they belong.
A species under threat
Dubbed the world’s most trafficked mammal, the pangolin is a gentle, solitary animal with a tongue as long as its body and which curls itself into a ball when threatened. Covered in scales for which there is an increasing demand in traditional medicine use, pangolins are being persecuted for both their scales and meat, as a result their numbers are declining globally. In Africa, populations have declined dramatically, with pockets of isolated natural landscapes retaining the last viable populations.
Of the world’s eight pangolin species, four occur in Africa; the Giant ground pangolin, Temminck’s ground pangolin, the white-bellied (or tree) pangolin and the black-bellied pangolin. All are listed on CITES Appendix I, prohibiting commercial international trade of the species and its parts.
Partnering for pangolin
In 2019, African Parks and Tikki Hywood Foundation pioneered a partnership combining their expertise and resources to boost conservation efforts of pangolin. By harnessing Tikki Hywood Foundation’s specialised species knowledge and skills and African Parks’ technical and operational capacity in remote protected areas such as Matusadona National Park, the partnership ensures that pangolin are rescued, rehabilitated and released into safe and suitable habitats. Since May 2023, Tikki Hywood Foundation has worked with Matusadona National Park to establish the Matusadona Pangolin Monitoring Programme, a monitoring and release programme supported by the Pangolin Crisis Fund. The park’s diverse landscape enables strategic releases of pangolin into habitats similar to their origins, which has thus far resulted in eleven successful releases. This year, the park successfully released four pangolin, including two rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and two which were handed in by local community members – a positive indication that park-supported community environmental education programmes are having an effect along with a growing trust between the communities and the park.