At the beginning of October, SVW rescued a baby pangolin from the South of Vietnam. Apparently, it was found on a market by a little girl that wanted to save the pangopup and hand-rear it. But the family didn’t have proper pangopup food, so they fed her with sugar water, which is very common for rescued babies. After a couple of days, they noticed her getting weaker and not enjoying the food, so they looked for organizations that could take care of her properly and ended up at SVW.
Leonara when rescued. Photo ©SVW.
Our team was already down there because we had just released a couple of pangolins in the area. Therefore, we were able to step in quickly and bring the pup to the new shelter in Cuc Phuong National Park.
From then, we each took terms taking care of her. We built her a small, safe enclosure with minor branches to practice climbing. We named her Leonara and got her accustomed to baby cat milk.
Photo ©SVW.
In the beginning, she needed to be fed every three hours. There was always one keeper in the rescue center overnight, staying up late, waking up in the middle of the night, and starting the day early, so we increased the chances as much as possible for her to grow up as a healthy Sunda pangolin.
Photo ©SVW.
Over time, we increased the milk she got and lowered the number of feedings. After approximately 2 months- Leo was ca 10 weeks by then- we slowly switched to solid food. At first, we separated the ants from the eggs and mixed them with milk. But she quickly enjoyed the typical food that all our pangolins eat. Leo is in a big enclosure with branches and eats ant eggs like a pro! Hopefully, she will be released soon.
Leonara now. Photo ©SVW.
Mara Capelle
