Zoos are always crowded during the September holidays.

Some parents will even try and bring their kids earlier to avoid the usual crowd.

Like this "kiasu" pangolin mum who brought her baby to visit the Zoo at wee hours avoiding the usual crowd of human beings.

On Sep. 5, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) shared a cute video of this pair of pangolins spotted in the zoo:

The baby clung onto the back of the adult pangolin as they moved steadily in the zoo on Aug. 29 last Wednesday at around 5.30 am in the morning, before the opening hours.

The actual location was undisclosed to protect them from potential poachers.

Critically endangered in the world

Sunda pangolins are critically endangered animals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

They are mainly threatened by illegal poaching, driven by demand from China and Vietnam for their scales, meat and skin. 

The population dwindles so quickly that the pangolins cannot reproduce fast enough to compensate for the loss as they only give birth to one to two offspring each year.

In China, the Chinese pangolins are already extinct.

You can find out more about Sunda pangolins here:

Threatened by traffic in Singapore

Sunda pangolins are native to Singapore and they still reside in local forests such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR) and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Mandai area, where the zoo is located within, is peripheral of CCNR where wildlife is spotted occasionally too.

In Singapore, however, traffic accidents are one of the main dangers for these Pangolins.

Preventive measures

This precious sighting at the zoo serves as a reminder of the presence of wildlife in a concrete jungle like Singapore.

In recent years, more has been done around Mandai to prevent potential roadkill while developing the area into an eco-tourism hub.

Preventive measures such as additional signages, speed bumps, speed radars and speed limits were put in place along Mandai Lake Road.

Rope bridge was also installed along Mandai Lake Road to facilitate a safer means of crossing for arboreal animals such as squirrels and macaques.

What might be helpful for slow crawling animals like pangolins will be a new Eco-Link which will also be built over the road in 2019.

Although there have been calls for the process to be expedited.

Similar to the current Eco-Link@BKE, this vegetated bridge of 44m wide and 110m long will provide the local wildlife in Mandai area with a safe passage.

Even with all these measures rolled out, drivers still play an important role, and it is important to be mindful of the wildlife as they drive so as to reduce roadkill.

 

Top photo from screenshot of WRS video

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