Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Race to Save the World’s Most Trafficked Mammal You’ve Never Heard of
Stewart, Virginia and their son, Dr. Mike, are known for their looks. Their bodies are nearly completely covered in scales, thick eyelids to prevent termite bites, long tails and claws for climbing trees, and a white belly under it all. They are three of the 13 pangolin residents at Brookfield Zoo Chicago.
Brookfield Zoo Chicago has had this endangered animal since April 2016, when the Chicago Zoological Society that manages the zoo started exhibiting the animal. This came from the formation of the North American Pangolin Consortium (NAPC), where a group of five zoos came together to help support pangolin conservation. The members of the consortium participate in many ways, whether that is leading innovation on pangolin research or donating funding to the program, which then turns into grants that can fund projects in places like West Africa and Asia.
“Any true conservation project takes a village, the only way we will be successful in saving world species and biodiversity is coming together as a team,” said Mark Wanner, who serves as chair of the NAPC.
But why are the pangolins in need of saving? On top of threats like habitat destruction and climate change, millions of pangolins are poached and trafficked each year, and a pangolin’s defense isn’t effective against people.
“They don’t have a strong defense against humans; when they are agitated or stressed, they curl up into a ball, and it’s very easy to just pick them up and put them in a bag and poach them,” said Wanner.
That defensive technique can work well against other predators in the wild. By rolling up, the pangolin protects itself due to its hard exterior, and because of this and its unique evolution, the pangolin has been able to survive more than 60 million years.
But something made from the pangolin’s unique evolution may end up being the reason for its demise: their scales.
“The scales are supposedly taken for medicinal purposes, but we all know the scales are made of keratin. The same thing our fingernails are made of,” said Wanner. “There is no medicinal property at all.”
The pangolin is the only mammal in the entire world almost fully covered in scales. On top of their scales being extremely sought after, the meat of a pangolin is considered a delicacy in Africa.
This isn’t just an issue concerning zoos, either. An environmental investigation agency (EIA) based in the UK knows all too well of the pangolin trade.
“For pangolins, our focus has been on the illegal trade and traditional Chinese medicine,” said Erin Chong, a wildlife campaigner for pangolins in the organization.
The EIA has been combating many of the same issues that Brookfield Zoo Chicago is trying to raise awareness of, and one is pangolin body parts being used in medicine. The EIA sends their people on covert missions dealing firsthand with the pangolin trade.
“We work with our investigation team and they do covert investigations engaging with the traders who are involved in these networks and we try to figure out how they work, what their methods are, where things are sourced from, where their stockpiles are and where they are shipped from,” said Chong.
The EIA also released a report from 2023, which includes a section detailing traditional Chinese medicine companies and products indicated to contain animal parts. The report documented at least 88 products containing pangolin, leopard, and even tiger bone and rhino horn.
The report also has a section that details foreign investors with investment ties to these traditional Chinese medicine companies. According to the report, some investors include BlackRock, Citigroup, and Fidelity International. Some investors in the report were even in the same organization as the EIA, which is the United for Wildlife financial task force. BlackRock, Citigroup and Fidelity could not be reached for comment before publishing.
Despite being the most trafficked mammal in the world and having numerous conservation efforts in place to help it, the pangolin lacks the attention it deserves.
“It’s not considered one of those charismatic species like elephants and rhinos, those large mega vertebrates,” said Wanner.
Adding to the struggles of not being one of the more known animals, pangolins are notoriously hard to take care of in captivity. But Brookfield Zoo Chicago is finding a way.
“We have learned a lot of the tweaks and balances it takes to take care of them in a zoo,” said Wanner.
There are only a select number of zoos that not only possess the facilities and abilities to properly take care of pangolins but are also up for the challenge. Brookfield Zoo Chicago is one of them.
“The passion of a couple individuals, a strong interest by the vice president of the zoo at the time to work with pangolins, and they realized the trafficking situation was out of hand and the most trafficked mammal in the world needed attention, no doubt about it,” said Wanner.
With the start of its breeding program, Brookfield Zoo Chicago is leading the way in research of the pangolin. For such an unknown animal, there are a lot of factors that have to be taken into account, and organizations are well aware of the challenges.
“Pangolins are extremely difficult to maintain in captivity and most die within a short period after capture,” according to save pangolins.org. Nevertheless, Brookfield Zoo Chicago is having success with their program.
“We’re doing very well with them in the zoo setting and kind of cracked some codes that have helped make it successful,” said Wanner.
Success can come in many ways. One is being able to measure the amount of scales and weight of the pangolins they have in the zoo. They will be able to estimate more accurately how many pangolins have been killed when officials seize large amounts of scales in the animal trafficking sector.
Another way is by watching the mother and pango pup behavior with a close eye. The pango pups are carried by their mothers, and they do this by latching onto their mother’s tail. This led them to another discovery: pangolin personality is not a one-size-fits-all mentality.
“What we have discovered here is that pangolins are very individualized, which isn’t that uncommon in the animal world but with pangolins it’s sort of a different level,” said Wanner.
An example of this is how some pango pups are fine with leaving their mom early, but the most recent resident, Dr. Mike seemed to not want to leave his mom at all.
“It’s pretty funny, our most recent animal born was larger than its mom when it was weaned and we had to wean it because it was still trying to ride mom when he weighed more than her,” Wanner described with a brief chuckle.
These discoveries are not only important for the scientific approach, but also for raising awareness. Brookfield Zoo Chicago also has a designated animal care specialist who focuses solely on pangolins. This has also led to a discovery that pangolins can form some bonds with humans. People often associate animals with massive amounts of scales as emotionless, but pangolins are rewriting that narrative.
“We do notice there is a strong bond with the animal care specialist which is important for medications and if you need to get a closer look of an animal without it running away,” said Wanner.
Much of what Brookfield Zoo Chicago has learned is changing what people thought they knew about pangolins.
“All of the pre-published data and anything you read on pangolins is not quite right and so those natural history facts need to be ironed out,” Wanner said about the zoo’s progress, which is now valuable information to help other zoos as well. “They have bred Asian pangolins in some European zoos and we were able to walk them through the early stages with their animals.”
The research they are gaining from this is changing the way that not only people view pangolins, but how they can be treated in places on the other side of the world. Wanner is proud of the progress they have made and says it makes a big difference.
“The information we gain here goes back to rehabilitators in Africa or other organizations that may encounter pangolins and that’s one of the most important things,” said Wanner. “When we learn something new about pangolins we learn how much we don’t know.”
But there is still work to be done. There are always new things to learn in pangolin research, and with the progress the pangolin program has made, only time will tell what other new discoveries Brookfield Zoo Chicago and its dedicated staff will make.
