The Giant Pangolin Project
Of all the species at risk of extinction due to the illegal wildlife trade, there are few that remain so cryptic and little studied as pangolins.
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Regional Field Programme Manager - Africa
Africa Biomonitoring Manager
Four species of pangolins inhabit the African continent.
The giant pangolin and the white bellied pangolin are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, while Temminck’s pangolin and the long-tailed pangolin are considered Vulnerable.
The trade of pangolins is centuries old and rooted deeply in tradition, making it something that must be addressed with great consideration and involvement of many stakeholder groups. Scale armour that forms a pangolin’s main defence against predators is used by some cultures as an ingredient in alternative medicines, as well as for decoration and fashion. Pangolins are also hunted for bushmeat, and an enormous international market for both meat and scales has exploded in recent decades.
The scale of the demand has had a stark effect on pangolin numbers, and on top of this, pangolins are dealing with the destruction of their habitat too, as the forests and plains face the pressures of growing human needs and climate change.
What can we do to prevent pangolin extinction?
Taking action isn’t so easy due to pangolin’s incredibly secretive lifestyles. The giant pangolin in particular, despite reaching up to 6 feet in length, is rarely seen by humans, preferring a secluded and mostly nocturnal life. To enact protection for a species requires a robust understanding of its status in any particular area: its movements, its lifestyle, its behaviours, its population size, and more.
Despite being the largest pangolin species, and with a range spanning much of Equatorial Africa, very little was previously known about the giant pangolin. In 2018 we embarked on a project to address the gaps in the knowledge, with the aim that improving our understanding of the species will enable us to develop suitable conservation action further down the line.
Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary
The Giant Pangolin Project was born from a pilot study in a protected area in southwest Uganda, where camera trap surveys laid the groundwork for our work elsewhere. In September 2018, the project’s move to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary opened up a brand new phase of pangolin discoveries. With a 5-year partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Authority well underway, long-term monitoring at Ziwa has allowed us to document the lives of individual pangolins as they roam and breed.
Our work here led to another major success, a world-first geotagging of a giant pangolin in the wild, providing new data on ranging patterns and habitat use.
The Great Camera Trapping Array
Over the years, we have refined our methods and have developed giant pangolin specific camera trap survey protocols. This has all helped to increase the detectability of the elusive species, and improved the accuracy and speed of our surveys.
Our Giant Pangolin Project has now carried out surveys throughout six protected areas in Uganda, maintained on the ground by Giant Pangolin Field Assistant, Sam Isoke.
We’re using the data from these surveys to conduct a national conservation assessment of the species. The map below shows an example of one of our surveys, where more than 120 camera traps were distributed throughout Lake Mburo National Park. The survey is allowing us to gather pangolin distribution data at the local level, and information on pangolin habitat suitability that can be applied to conservation planning efforts nationwide.
Maintaining camera-trap surveys of this size is challenging work, and a 2022 arm of the Giant Pangolin Project aims to incorporate community participation in this research across different regions of Uganda as we seek to scale up further. Primarily, the Giant Pangolin Project has focused on areas of protected forest, but unprotected areas are also likely to be home to resident pangolins or act as transit areas as pangolins move from one region to the next.
Community engagement therefore holds huge potential to both gather further data on wildlife sightings, as well as address some of the causes of pangolin decline. In time, we hope that the project will be supported by camera-trapping champions: people who live in areas within or adjacent to spots of high giant pangolin density who can continue the monitoring of a population and act as ambassadors for its protection.
A future for pangolins in Africa
The collection of baseline data on distribution, abundance, behaviour and ecology of pangolins is vital for the creation any conservation plans in the years ahead. This data lays the foundation for the long-term protection of precious pangolin populations in Africa, populations that in-time may prove to be critical for the species’ survival overall. Safeguarding of pangolin habitat also affords protection to other essential and often overlooked African wildlife across all taxa.
Six populations of giant pangolin in Uganda are an excellent start, and now we’re looking outside of the nation’s borders – to the East, where in Kenya the first confirmed sightings of giant pangolin have been confirmed – and to the West, where the forests of coastal Africa hold potentially unknown discoveries.