by John Lee, founder of Wildlife Asia (Singapore)
It was a day of double bonanza for me.
I set my foot on a Saturday night (10 July) going in search of wildlife of Singapore with all my photography set-up (camera, lenses, etc.), and I must say that I was immensely pleased to be rewarded with two sightings of wildlife.
The first sighting was the elusive wild ‘Asian Palm Civet’ (Paradoxurus musangus) cat, sighted right at the beginning of my trip to nature.
However, what shocked and surprise me was my second sighting and it was none other than the critically endangered ‘Sunda Pangolin’ or ‘Scaly Anteater’ (Manis Javanica).
To my surprise, it unexpectedly appeared right in front of my path at 4.00am in the early morning of Sunday (11 July).
According to the United Nation World International Body for nature and wildlife, the Sunda Pangolin is listed on the Red List of Threatened Species as ‘Critically Endangered Animal‘ under the UN’s International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
It is fortunate to note that the Sunda Pangoli – the world’s most widely trafficked animal – is native to Singapore.
The Lion City offers this rare critical endangered mammal a refuge and a stronghold in a highly urbanised area.
The Sunda Pangolin is mainly threatened by illegal wildlife trade. However, it was found that road kill – rather than illegal poachers – took the bulk of their lives away in Singapore.
