There has been minimal research completed within Namibia, for this reason, AfriCat is launching the AfriCat Pangolin Project aimed at studying all details of life for the ground pangolin in Namibia. The overall aim of this project is to understand the activity patterns, population dynamics, prey selectivity, and overall ecology of wild pangolin within ONR and to gather further information about their behavior and survival strategies. The end goal of collecting this data is to shed light on biological baseline knowledge and to create conservation guidelines for ground pangolin which can be applicable across their range. Another very important objective is to increase awareness of the vulnerable status of southern Africa’s only pangolin species.
Using VHF tags attached to the scale, we are able to track pangolin in order to collect spatial data and observe their behaviors including prey selectivity, activity patterns and budgets, and survival strategies. The spatial data collected is used to determine home range sizes and changes in movement across seasons. Camera traps setup at known burrows will also assist in collecting data about activity patterns specifically determining emergence and return times at burrow locations. Remote weather stations allow us to look at the effects of weather conditions on pangolin active times and durations. All of the data collected will be used to further our knowledge on overall pangolin ecology. As we learn from ongoing research and advanced methodology, additional areas of focus will be included into the research.
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
-Albert Einstein