Late on what seemed like a regular night in 2023, a scaly animal darted past one of our remote cameras that are intended to measure large carnivore densities as part of a BIOPAMA-funded project in Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal. Panthera Coordinator of Fauna and Habitat Monitoring Mouhamadou Mody Ndiaye and his team were shocked to find it was a giant pangolin, a rare species that had not been recorded in Senegal in nearly 25 years. Read on to learn from Mouhamadou about what this could mean for the species.
As wildlife ecologists, my team and I comb through thousands of images from remote camera surveys, hoping to count the number of lions, leopards, wild dogs and other carnivores in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park. But nothing could have prepared us for the scaly species we spotted that night. We were expecting to see a lion, leopard or hyena that night — you can imagine our surprise when a giant pangolin walked across our lens — the unmistakable and very rare giant pangolin.
We were completely caught off guard. Panthera works with Senegal’s Direction des Parcs Nationaux (DPN) in Niokolo-Koba National Park as part of the BIOPAMA-funded project to protect this unique ecosystem’s regionally threatened large carnivore species, including leopards and Critically Endangered West African lions. Since 2017, our combined efforts to monitor these lions and support anti-poaching patrols have doubled the park’s lion population to around 30 to 40 individuals. In addition to fitting lions with GPS collars, our teams conduct remote camera surveys to measure large carnivore densities in the park. You can imagine our surprise when a giant pangolin walked across our lens.
In general, giant pangolins are not just threatened in Senegal, but across their range. Giant pangolins range over much of West and Central Africa, but because of widespread poaching and habitat loss, they are now listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In fact, pangolin species across Africa and Asia are amongst the world’s most threatened mammals, often poached for their body parts.
In West Africa, while there is evidence of the species’ tenuous persistence in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mali, a giant pangolin had not been documented in Senegal since 1999 — until now. The rediscovery of the giant pangolin in Senegal opens up a world of conservation possibilities, proving the need for more large, protected areas like Niokolo-Koba National Park in the region.
We're beginning a comprehensive plan to protect this newly rediscovered species right away. Because of Niokolo-Koba's extreme temperatures, the park is an ideal location to study the burrows of pangolins and aardvarks. Panthera, Senegal’s DPN and local universities are devising a plan to investigate the complex microhabitats of these burrows and how giant pangolins are engineers for their entire ecosystems.
In addition to creating complex burrow ecosystems, giant pangolins also control insect populations. There’s truly no animal like the giant pangolin — it fulfills a critical ecological niche throughout its range that benefits even the largest carnivores. As a result, this scaly, otherworldly-looking creature’s conservation is central to the preservation of its ecosystems.
While there’s still a long way to go for this Endangered species and all pangolin species worldwide, this giant rediscovery is a step in the right direction. Giant pangolins are iconic creatures whose recovery can give a boost to conservation everywhere. Their survival shows that one remote camera picture can reveal a piece of the conservation puzzle we’ve been missing all along.
Read the original study in the African Journal of Ecology.
This blog has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States through the BIOPAMA Programme. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Panthera and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union nor of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
The Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) programme aims to improve the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in protected areas and surrounding communities. It is an initiative of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States financed by the European Union’s 11th European Development Fund (EDF), jointly implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). Building on the first five years of activities financed by the 10th EDF (2012-2017), BIOPAMA’s second phase provides tools for data and information management, services for improving the knowledge and capacity for protected area planning and decision making, and funding opportunities for specific site-based actions. www.biopama.org
ACP – www.acp.int
EU – www.Europa.eu
By joining our email list, you will receive the latest conservation updates, exciting stories from the field, our monthly newsletter, and more.
Join Our Email ListPanthera cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy.
© Sebastian Kennerknecht
