The Kalahari pangolin, Sarabi is recovering

Emma De Jager of Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre gave an update on Sarabi, a mother pangolin that was rescued with her baby last month. “This has been a really hard one. She was poached in the Kalahari, and she had a horrific head wound that occurred while the poachers were trying to her open with a shovel, which fractured her skull and took a big piece of flesh.

The reason we believe that they were trying to get her to uncurl was because she had a newborn baby tucked up. We think that she must have given birth while she was poached due to stress. Luckily, she was confiscated from the poachers after a successful sting operation and was taken to the vet for stabilization,” she said.

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She said that once the pangolin was stabilized, she was then flown down by Hope for Wildlife Helicopter Services and went to Provet Animal Hospital where she and the baby received critical treatment. “After a week in ICU Sarabi was strong enough to come to us to finish her road to recovery. She is getting treated daily for her head wound at Tzaneen Animal Clinic and it is taking a long time to close, but we will get there.

Unfortunately, when she arrived, we found out that she was not lactating so we could not let her keep the baby. This is always a very hard choice for us, but it was the right choice to make as she could not feed the baby and she did not have the strength to look after herself and the baby,” she added. She said that once Sarabi’s head has healed she will return to the Kalahari where she belongs.

“We cannot imagine what this poor pangolin had to go through, not only being poached and abused but also losing her baby, but hopefully she will go on to have many more. Stay tuned for part 2 of the story where there will be an update on her little one. A big thank you goes out to all involved, the Kalahari Wildlife Project and South African Police Service,” she concluded.