Sabah team conducting study on Sunda pangolins

Critically endangered mammal: Researchers checking on the female pangolin which was rescued by Nasri.

KOTA KINABALU: Nasri Manjah saw an adult pangolin crossing the road near an oil palm estate in the Kinabatangan district and decided to bring it home.

He asked his son to share the find on his Facebook account and received offers from people wanting to buy the animal.

However, Nasri, who has lived in the district since 1976, refused to sell the female Sunda pangolin because he wanted it to be rescued after seeing its numbers declining due to hunting over the years.

His find gained the attention of Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) researchers Elisa Panjang, a doctorate student registered at Cardiff University and Dr Laura Benedict, a veterinarian from the Sabah Wild­life Department (SWD) Rescue Unit.

They later brought the animal to the DGFC. It was fitted with a global positioning system (GPS) unit and released.

Elisa said the 7.72kg pangolin which has been named “Asa”, was tracked for a week after its release to help the team carry out a research on pangolins and their habitat.

She said pangolins were scaly mammals, making them unique.

“So few studies have been made on the pangolins due to their elusive behaviour and no detailed research has been carried out on them.

“We want to understand how pangolins respond to the environment, particularly in degraded and fragmented forests like Kinabatan­gan.”

The project is a long-term collaboration between DGFC and SWD and is financially supported by Houston Zoo and Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong.

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said pangolins were the most trafficked mammal in the world.

He said the Sunda pangolin was the only species found in Sabah and protected under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, which meant that one must have a licence to hunt them.

However,state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun had been seeking for the Sunda pangolin to become a totally-protected species, Dr Goos­sens said.

SWD assistant director Dr Sen Nathan said the department wanted to upgrade the status of pangolins to Schedule 1 (prohibiting hunting, possession, consumption and sale of pangolins, and any parts).

Sabah Wildlife Department found that more than 22,000 pangolins were killed in Sabah between May 2007 and January 2009 to supply one smuggling syndicate.