If your a pangolin fan, its been an exciting day for you. My local zoo, Brookfield, debuted 1 of the 13 pangolins in their collection today. Pittsburgh, Memphis, Gladys Porter, Turtle Back and Columbus have also received pangolins late last year. Zoologica is the source of this sudden spree of African White-Bellied Tree Pangolins, and is the same organization that is run by Justin Miller, who is responsible for obtaining the specimens. What are your thoughts about pangolins returning to the West?
Of course we all think it's great. However, what really needs to happen is for zoos in the East to educate the people who are actually eating the pangolins and causing their decline.
I am looking forward to yet another 'mythical' creature to establish itself in zoos. It is always great when zoos piece together knowledge and a species which for so long could not be kept and bred in a zoo starts to live and breed. Pangolins are good education animals and very endangered in the wild.
I would like to see Europe take on one of the S.E. Asian taxa. The US zoos and Zoologica have demonstrated clearly this can be done. It will improve our husbandry knowledge and serve as a PR vehicle for conservation education and better in situ conservation as well as raising its profile. We know all about elephants, rhinos, tigers, …. sea horses and illegal wildlife trade for mainly Asian markets (increasingly and sadly also now Africa with bushmeat), but for pangolins the airtime in zoos is still minimal ...
