SAVE VIETNAM'S WILDLIFE, NINH BINH

Pangolin Rescue in Vietnam

Justin Mott follows the team at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife in Ninh Binh as they pull trafficked pangolins out of the illegal trade and return them to the wild.

Eight species of pangolins are found on two continents. They range from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered.

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife is a non-profit organization located in Ninh Binh, Vietnam.

Their pangolin rescue and rehabilitation program works on rescuing pangolins from the illegal wildlife trade and rehabilitating them back into the wild.

Head veterinarian Thuy Hoang, 29, puts an injured pangolin under anesthesia while she operates on his injured tail.

Person in green work clothes with a headlamp holding a small crocodile in a dim outdoor alley.

A small road leading to SVW office in Cuc Phuong national park Ninh Binh, Vietnam.
In addition to pangolins, SVW also works with civets, river otters, and binturong(bearcats).

A radio transmitter is attached to a rescued pangolin who will soon be released into a national park and have its movements tracked.

Head pangolin keeper Tran Van Truong, 27, checks on the heat lamps and collects camera traps from the quarantined area of the center during the day while the pangolin sleep.

Pangolins are solitary, shy and temperamental, and prone to dying during captivity for reasons unknown.

Empty wooden boxes use to house and transport pangolins.

Dinh Van Tham, 61 years-old, pangolin keeper, makes his nightly rounds to check on the pangolins.

Pangolin keeper Dinh Van Tham, 61 years-old, feeds the pangolins a diet of mainly ant larvae.

A startled pangolin will cover its head with its front legs turning itself into a small ball of armor making it hard to penetrate to potential predators.

The average lifespan of pangolin is unknown and their average size ranges from 45 inches to 4.5 feet long and can weigh anywhere between 4 and 72 pounds.

Head pangolin keeper Tran Van Truong, 27, reviews footage from a camera trap of a pangolin and her two-week old baby.

Pangolins are nocturnal so they must be viewed in the evenings and due to their fragility camera traps are used to monitor their behavior.

M 1494 was found dead underneath the ground from unknown causes, she was approximately 5 years-old cutting their captive Chinese pangolin population from 8 to 7.

Both species are considered critically endangered by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to the substantial amount of illegal trade in pangolin products over the last two decades. Although population figures are difficult to quantify it is believed that these species have had a decline of 80-90% in the last three decades.

An injured pangolin receives anesthesia during surgery at SVW veterinarian hospital.

A sick quarantined pangolin is taken out for a medical check-up.

A portrait of pangolin caretaker Dinh Van Tham, 61, in the pangolin quarantine area of their rehabilitation center.

In the evenings the keepers check to see if the pangolins are eating, track their movements, and check on their overall behavior to make sure they are on in good health.

When rescued pangolins arrive at the center they are quarantined for 3 weeks to a month having their health checked out thoroughly and then they are released back into the wild into national parks.

The word Pangolin comes from ‘penggulung,’ the Malay word for roller – the action a pangolin takes in self-defense. If touched or grabbed it will roll up completely into a ball, while the sharp scales on the tail can be used to lash out.

SVW works with the government’s confiscation authorities, providing practical training in best practices and to give emergency care to the rescued wildlife they receive.

Head pangolin keeper Tran Van Truong, 27, carries an injured pangolin to the veterinarian
to have his bandage changed.

The pangolin had to have a portion of his tail amputated due to injuries suffered while being transported in the illegal wildlife trade.

The staff at SVW holds an emergency meeting after the death of a recent Chinese pangolin for unknown causes.

Viet Nam is home to two species of pangolin, the Sunda pangolin (Manid javanica) and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). The Sunda pangolin inhabits in the South of Viet Nam while the Chinese pangolin in the North. Both species are generally found in forested areas and are secretive in nature making it difficult to study population trends.

SVW currently has 30 Sunda pangolins and 7 Chinese pangolins at their center.

A rescued and rehabilitated pangolin is tagged and then transported to the airport in Hanoi where he will be flown to Ho Chi Minh City and then released into a nearby national park.

A sick pangolin receives fluids and has a medical check-up.

A quarantined pangolin is returned to her holding area after a health check up.

A logbook for documenting deceased pangolins in the veterinarian offices of SVW.

A deceased pangolin is placed in a freezer until local officials from the the wildlife department can visit to authorize and document burning their bodies.

SVW veterinarian, Le Thi Hoai, 25, performs an autopsy on a recently deceased pangolin.
In the past month an alarming 3 pangolins have died from unknown causes so the head veterinarian collects a sample to be sent to a lab in Australia for analysis.

Pangolins are hunted in Viet Nam for the domestic and international trade of pangolin products, however Viet Nam is also a transit route for pangolins imported from throughout Asia and Africa to be re-exported to countries such as China.

Pangolins are primarily hunted for their use in the bushmeat trade and for traditional medicine purposes. In traditional medicine, pangolin scales is used to be considered as being able to treat skin conditions, low blood pressure, or failure to stimulate milk secretion in lactating women and cancer. Pangolin meat is generally consumed as a sign of affluence with the price per kilogram extremely high.

Dinh Van Tham, 61 years-old, pangolin keeper at SVW prepares his keys to check on the pangolins during his evening shift.

Pangolins are extremely fragile mammals and they often die in captivity of unknown causes.

SVW veterinarian, Le Thi Hoai, 25, carries a deceased Chinese pangolin to her laboratory to study the cause of death.

Pangolin keeper Dinh Van Tham, 61 years-old, logs information about the center’s 37 rescued pangolins after his nightly rounds.

Pangolins are largely covered in scales made of keratin-the same material found in human fingernails.

Dinh Van Tham, 61 years-old, checks the health of a quarantined pangolin in the late hours of the evening.

Pangolins are similar in appearance to anteaters, hence their nickname “scaly anteaters” and have long snouts and even longer tongues.

The world's most trafficked mammal

No animal is trafficked more than the pangolin. It is hunted for its scales, sold into traditional medicine, and killed for its meat. Of the eight species, three are critically endangered, three are endangered, and two are vulnerable. Vietnam sits at the centre of both the trade and the fight against it.

Pangolin Rescue with Save Vietnam’s Wildlife

This chapter of Kindred Guardians follows Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, a rescue and rehabilitation organization in Ninh Binh. The team has rescued more than 1,300 pangolins and returned over 60 percent of them to the wild, flying recovered animals to the Ho Chi Minh City and releasing them into Cat Tien National Park.

Confiscated pangolins arrive stressed and often sick. Shy and nocturnal, they are notoriously hard to keep alive in captivity, which is what makes every successful release matter.

Why it matters

Rescue alone will not save the species. It needs a change in the culture that treats pangolins as medicine and as food. Photographing them was its own problem: "Pangolins weren't hard for speed," I said at the time, "but they're just hard for light."

This story is part of my ongoing, self-funded Kindred Guardians project. See more of my long-term documentary work in Personal Projects.

Featured in: The Washington Post