Hello All! With today being World Pangolin Day, it got me thinking as exactly WHY more isnt being done about increasing the footprint of this animal in european and, particularly, UK collections. Surely there are collections out there that could easily house and breed them?!?!? It is truly abhorrent what is happening to this, IMO, highly charismatic animal-one that would make a perfect zoo exhibit and conservation story. The average person won't grasp the enormity of the problem just by reading articles and newsletters.
My guess would be that pangolins are not more widely spread because they are high-maintenance animals that are asleep most of the time that zoo visitors are at the zoo. That said I agree with everything that you are saying if zoos could reliably take care of the pangolins and figure out how to effectively tell their conservation stories. My impression is that some of the Asian zoos like Singapore and Taipei may have figured this out.
I've heard that pangolins are somewhat difficult to keep, but it would be awesome if zoos could figure it out. Pangolins are still somewhat obscure and good zoo display might help spread the word about their plight.
Another article about the Pangolins : http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/science/a-struggle-to-save-the-scaly-pangolin.html
I didn't know that pangolin scales were made of keratin. That's so interesting. Since pangolins are difficult to keep in captivity... Well, it's not uncommon for zoos and aquariums to promote education and conservation about some of the larger animals they don't keep. For instance, large whales and sometimes other marine mammals. There are so many small animal species that don't do well in captivity; it would be pretty neat if zoos could still advocate for them more.
