Retrieved out of the trade
On the 25th of April 2020, a pangolin was retrieved out of the illegal trade in an intelligence-driven operation by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Endangered Species Unit. Pangolins retrieved from the trade are given names of association with their retrieval location or circumstances, and this one was named Ally. In Ally’s case, her name was derived from her rescue location - the Alldays region of Limpopo Province, South Africa. She was transported by the Limpopo Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism (LEDET) to Dr Xander de Kock, a veterinary surgeon in Polokwane. Dr de Kock phoned the acknowledged expert in the field of pangolin medicine, Dr Karin Lourens from the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital (JWVH).  Dr K immediately left for Polokwane and arrived just before 20:00 on that Saturday evening. She has treated more than 100 Temminck’s pangolin and immediately assisted in stabilizing Ally, who was dehydrated and underweight. During an abdominal ultrasound,  Dr de Kock established that Ally was pregnant, which made her treatment and recovery even more urgent. Pregnant pangolins are very rarely seen by researchers and vets, and there are no studies or documentation on the stages of development of pangolin foetuses. Because of this, the doctors had no way to determine the age of the foetus, but they could detect a normal, regular heartbeat. Once Ally was stabilized, Dr K transported her back to a secure location in Johannesburg, arriving in the early hours of Sunday morning. Ally’s road to freedom had begun.

​Hospitalisation, treatment and rehabilitation
Pangolins retrieved out of the illegal wildlife trade are all compromised, with the level of compromise varying between individuals. The trauma is both physical and mental and often complicated by hidden conditions like pneumonia. Ally was no different. Not only was she also suffering from pneumonia, but she had an unborn pup to keep healthy. The news of her pregnancy was both happy and sad for the staff at the hospital as a new life is always wonderful, but the risk of Ally aborting due to stress was great. She was slowly nursed back to health, with regular blood tests, CT scans to make sure her lungs were healing as well as ultrasounds to ensure the pup was developing normally. A few days after her arrival she was stable enough to be taken out to forage – Temminck’s pangolins don’t eat in captivity; they only eat live ants and termites that they find by themselves while taken out on supervised foraging excursions. Ally’s improvement over the first week was marked. She became more confident and finally started behaving like a normal, healthy pangolin. Her lungs had cleared, and she had gained sufficient weight for Dr K to clear her for release. 

Facilitated release back to the wild
Ally was discharged from the JWVH on the 13th of May 2020 and moved up to her selected release site in the Limpopo Valley on the norther border of South Africa with Zimbabwe. Francois Meyer, the African Pangolin Working Group’s Limpopo Field Manager was tasked with managing this delicate release process. All our releases are facilitated processes; designed to slowly introduce retrieved pangolins into their new environments. In Ally’s case it included making certain she had access to sufficient quantities of her desired species of ants and termites and suitable refuge sites. She was fitted with two types of transmitters to ensure efficient post-release monitoring. The first was a VHF transmitter for fine-scaled tracking and the second, a satellite transmitter to locate her should she move out of the 3 km range of the VHF tags. Both tags were attached dorsally to her scales. With these, we will attempt to monitor her well-being for a year or more.

Although it was confirmed that Ally was pregnant during veterinary care, we were still unsure on when exactly she would give birth. One thing was certain though, is that we did not want her to give birth during care or during the release protocol, as this would only place additional stress on her and her unborn pup. The release team made sure to adapt all our protocols to maximize a hands-off approach and to ensure that stress on Ally was kept to a minimum.

Initially her release had us a bit worried, as she was displaying possible stress behaviour and we were worried that she might not adapt and settle down to the selected release site. Our main concern was the was “fleeing” out of the area, which would be an indication of an extremely stressed animal.

Upon observing her behaviour and taking frequent body weight readings, we actually found the opposite. She was definitely foraging effectively and maintaining a constant body weight. With her movement behaviour however, it was clear that she was looking for more familiar habitat, and this is something we had to take into consideration before her final release.

After careful consideration on our options we decided to take a risk and move her to a slightly different area upon the reserve, and this risk immediately paid off! Ally showed all the signs we were hoping to see in a successful release. She fed on a high diversity of ant species, she gained body weight, she found sufficient shelter and she was showing typical pangolin settling behaviour.

In the following few days, we monitored her behaviour and general signs of health. Once we were satisfied that she was indeed adapting well, we started to reduce our presence within her new territory, only stepping in to collect necessary data for our research.
The success of Ally’s release emphasizes the importance of proficient release teams and that of post-release monitoring.
 
Born free
Niall Beddy and his team has been monitoring Ally’s movements and checking up on her condition since she was released, and part of this process involves setting camera traps outside of her favourite burrows to record movement and behaviour patterns. We are extremely grateful to the Into the Wilderness Podcast series posted by Byron Pace for the kind donation of these expensive trail cams. We are very aware that continuous disturbances from us could have caused her distress and impacted her pregnancy and motherhood or cause her to leave the region. Camera traps are ideal for monitoring her progress without unnecessary disturbance. It was in one of these recordings that we noticed her new-born pup. This is the first time we have a record of an African pangolin successfully giving birth after being retrieved out of the illegal wildlife trade and being released back into the wild. We are a coalition of proud aunts and uncles, with this first in our history - a new pangolin born free!
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Excellent cooperation between the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, the African Pangolin Working Group, the South African Police Services Endangered Species Unit, the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, the Department of Environmental, Forestry and Fisheries and private game farm owners have made this truly wonderful and amazing event possible and we are sincerely and truly grateful to this fantastic teamwork and rejoice in celebrating the arrival of a new pangolin pup.

We received this young Rock monitor (Varanus albigularis) from a member of the Fourways community. The poor monitor was dehydrated and had some wounds that may have been caused by a pitch fork. We hydrated the monitor, treated him for pain, and ensured that we met his healthy appetite! Luckily the wounds were not severe, and he was released into a quiet natural environment.
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Thank you to the I Love Fourways community and to everyone who assisted this monitor!
We treat indigenous wildlife, free of charge, relying on the community for donations and support.
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Pic: Lauren Beckley

Remember our pregnant pangolin patient? She was released a few weeks ago. We’re so grateful she was one of the lucky ones, saved from the illegal trade, and able to give birth and raise her baby in the wild.
These pictures are from initial sightings of her post release. We are incredibly grateful to the team of people who make our pangolin rescue, rehabilitation and releases so successful.
Thanks Fourways Vet Hospital for your assistance with her, our dedicated volunteer team and hospital staff who cared for her while she was under treatment at our hospital, as well as the team responsible for her post release monitoring.
For the original post, click here: https://www.facebook.com/johannesburgwildlifevet/videos/943319369196818/
Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account nr: 62658400264
Branch code: 255355
Reference: Kwarra
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
Nominate us to win a share of 2.1 million with #MySchool21 HERE: https://bit.ly/2RrF6sF
We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

Pics: Francois Meyer

An adult male Temminck’s ground pangolin was confiscated during a sting operation. After admission and a light sedation, blood samples were taken. Once we were confident that he had a clean bill of health, he was released; being closely monitored through the telemetry unit attached to one of his scales.

It has been a few weeks since his release, and we are pleased to report that he is doing well!
Our sincere thanks go to the team that worked tirelessly in ensuring the success of Khufu's rescue, his care at the clinic, daily walking so that he could forage, coordination of his release and the post-release monitoring. Our sincere thanks to Francois Meyer for the hours and hours spent following Khufu.

Rehabilitation of pangolins is costly! If you'd like to sponsor the rehabilitation and release of this elusive species, please get in touch: jhbsmallwildlife@gmail.com

Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account nr: 62658400264
Branch code: 255355
Reference: Khufu
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
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We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

Pics: Ashleigh Pienaar

BEST WISHES to the youngest member of our core team, Ashleigh Pienaar, as she begins her journey to become a veterinarian!

Ashleigh is a passionate, willing, knowledgeable, kind and formidable member of the JWHV team and has been assisting us in numerous ways for numerous hours over the past year. She has been an incredible help, from raising orphaned baby mammals, bats and birds, to assisting in any and all clinic activities. From fostering young patients, feeding, cleaning, meal prep, observing Dr K's vet protocols and surgeries, assisting in pangolin rehabilitation, transporting animals, collecting food, donations and patients as well as taking the most phenomenal pictures of our patients, she is truly incredible! Ash is also the brains behind our lovely 2019 calendar too. She has immersed herself into our world and we are incredibly proud of all her successes so far, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for you, Ash.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generosity, and all your hard work. The hospital, our patients and our team are better for having you part of our team. We hope to have you join us as and when your schedule allows. Our doors are always open to you, and you always have a place in our family.
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We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

A few weeks ago, we shared the story of this Cape Fox (Vulpes chama). She was illegally kept in a domestic environment with dogs and was subsequently bitten. Having been moved into an outside enclosure, introduced to natural food items and having recovered completely from the dog bite, her next step is freedom to live out her life in the wild, where she should have been all along.
For the original post, CLICK HERE:  https://www.facebook.com/1413097125375104/posts/2597544426930362/

​Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account nr: 62658400264
Branch code: 255355
Reference: cape fox
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ

Nominate us to win a share of 2.1 million with #MySchool21 HERE: https://bit.ly/2RrF6sF

We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

Pics: Ashleigh Pienaar

We would like to thank Elise Varga for donating to our facility in loving memory of her dog, Padma. She and Louise Brown would like to honour Padma’s memory by supporting our hospital. What a special way to share the love of a precious pet.
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We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

This Serval (Leptailurus serval) was collected by the Highveld Ridge SPCA and Feral Watch TNR after he was found hiding in a pile of rubble in someone's yard.

He is healthy and of adequate weight, and as part of his rehabilitation process, has been introduced to natural prey items. He is ready to be relocated to a pre-release enclosure in a safe reserve which offers him a suitable habitat. This is where he will be slowly introduced to the area and become acclimatised to his new territory.

For the original post, CLICK HERE: https://www.facebook.com/1413097125375104/posts/2492679250750214/

Once again, our thanks to Highveld Ridge SPCA and Feral Watch TNR for caring for this serval and collaborating with us.

We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account: 62658400264
Branch Code: 255355
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
Reference: serval
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Pics: Ashleigh Pienaar

This Bush pig (Potamochoerus larvatus) was found to be abandoned, and a member of the public took him to the Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital at Onderstepoort. Unable to reunite him with his family, this pig has been cared for by Sr Soné Louw, under the guidance of Dr Dorianne Elliot.

The Bush pig was subsequently transferred to us, and a suitable release site with a pre-release enclosure was found. While he still requires his special milk formula, this pig is well on his way to being wild and free.

Caring for wildlife, like this little Bush pig means not only ensuring their health and safety while they are in our care. Of equal importance is their health and safety during their transition period and post release. These costs are exorbitant and we are currently struggling financially. Optimal care for our patients is our utmost priority and we would love a little support to go towards these expenses.

If you’re in a position to donate financially, or to purchase some items on our wish list, we’d be sincerely grateful!

Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account nr: 62658400264
Branch code: 255355
Reference: Bush pig
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ

Make a donation: http://www.johannesburgwildlifevet.com/make-a-donation.html

Our wishlist: http://www.johannesburgwildlifevet.com/our-wishlist.html

Nominate us to win a share of 2.1 million with #MySchool21 HERE: https://bit.ly/2RrF6sF

We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.
​
Pics: Ashleigh Pienaar & Sarah Kempen

This juvenile Vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) was found after his mom died after being hit by a car. Members of the public rescued him from this scene, and he was subsequently brought to us. We examined him upon admission and treated him for dehydration.

He has been transferred to a permitted primate specialist rehabilitation centre, where he will be introduced to other vervets which will be formed into a viable troop. The troop will eventually be released, to live as wild vervets should.

Our thanks to permitted volunteer, Lauren Beckley, for her time and dedication she gave to this vervet and for ensuring he arrived safely at the next step in his rehabilitation journey.

We treat indigenous animals free of charge, relying solely on the donations and support of our community.

Johannesburg Wildlife NPC 
FNB Cheque account
Account nr: 62658400264
Branch code: 255355
Reference: vervet
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
​
Nominate us to win a share of 2.1 million with #MySchool21 HERE: https://bit.ly/2RrF6sF
​
Pics: Dr K & Lauren Beckley