Pangolin is rescued in Son La

On 5th October 2019, a Sunda pangolin was rescued successfully from Sop Cop’s police, Son La province. The pangolin was looked after in the Cuc Phuong’s quarantine station, with a plan for a future release.

3 pangolins are rescued in Quang Tri

On 8th October, SVW rescued 5 pangolins in Huong Hoa, Quang Tri. When police officers discovered them, they were locked in net bags and stuffed in iron cages. All of them had signs of dehydration due to transportation, especially one of them who had severe necrosis in the tail. Sadly, the pangolin whose necrosis in the tail was too weak then died in the center, and one died the day after because of bad stomach problem. The other 3 pangolins were taken care of in the quarantine area.

3 pangolins and 1 turtle are rescued in Quang Nam

The police detected and confiscated 5 pangolins and 1 Indochinese Box Turtle in the house of a local trader. The suspect was subsequently arrested.
Sadly, one of the female pangolins gave birth to a baby but both of them died before the police arrived. All of animals had signs of dehydration due to transportation and being kept in inappropriate conditions. The turtle is under the care of the Turtle Rescue Center of the Asian Turtle Program. The pangolins are being taken care of in SVW’s quarantine area.

Pangolin monitoring in the semi wild area at SVW

A baby pangolin was born at our center last year and a transmitter was attached to it. The transmitter comes attached to a ‘sling’, this is a strip of flexible webbing which allows the unit to be screwed onto a large scale on the hind quarters of the pangolin, which is currently the favoured attachment method.

The transmitter will be trialed on captive Sunda pangolins in SVW for a minimum of two weeks. This will enable us to closely monitor for signs of stress (e.g. weight loss, appetite loss, rapid climbing or running, repeated movements, clawing at the enclosure mesh or door). Transmitters and attachment techniques will be assessed for durability and reliability.

Halloween with the binturong

To celebrate Halloween, our volunteers carved a Halloween watermelon for our binturong, Hoi An. Our head keeper and one of the volunteers tied the watermelon to a branch in her cage. At first, it was quite a challenge for her to get to the watermelon. But she eventually found a way and was able to reach the fruit pieces out of the carved watermelon. She enjoyed the treat so much. Creating enrichment tools for binturong is a way to improve their quality of life and rehabilitate their behaviors.

You can symbolic adopt a binturong to give them a comfortable life at our center.

Photo by Shay Brechbuhler.

Director upskills in the Netherlands

From 21st to 26th October , 17 Future For Nature winners, including Mr. Thai Nguyen Van, SVW Director, were in the Netherlands for insightful workshops, developing personal skills, learning from each others challenges and knowledge as conservationists, and inspiring young and enthusiastic minds of the Future For Nature Academy!

Photo by Future For Nature.

Our vets present their research at National University of Agriculture

Hoai and Jess, our vet staff gave a presentation about an unknown pangolin disease at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture’s Pathology Conference. This conference was a good opportunity to solidify our growing relationship with the university. We are writing up these cases with a veterinarian from the US and hope to submit them to colleagues of ours for professional review.

Daniel Willcox, Science Advisor attends IUCN SSC Leaders meeting

The IUCN has issued an urgent call to massively scale up species conservation action in response to the escalating biodiversity crisis.

The Abu Dhabi Call for Global Species Conservation Action appeals to the world’s governments, international agencies and the private sector to halt species decline and prevent human-driven extinctions by 2030, and to improve the conservation status of threatened species with a view to bringing about widespread recovery by 2050. In the short term the Call is for an ambitious target on species conservation to be agreed by governments in 2020 – to be supported by a strong programme to implement the target.

Visitors and Experience Exchanges

Conservation Director from Zimbabwe shares her skills of pangolin conservation in South Africa

We were lucky to have Ms. Ellen - Conservation Director of Tiki Hywood Foundation from Zimbabwe visit our rescue center end of September. Ms. Ellen appreciated the rescue and recovery activities of wildlife at the center. Additionally, she also had a presentation to share about pangolin conservation activities in Zimbabwe with us. That was such a helpful talk to help SVW staff gain more knowledge about conservation activities and the law enforcement system in Zimbabwe.

Life Science Associate visits from Singapore Zoo

Mr. Ade Kurniawan, Life Science Associate from a Wildlife Reserve in Singapore come to visit the center in October. We were very grateful that he shared his specific husbandry knowledge and experience in the rehabilitation and release of pangolins and otters.

Researcher, Tan is sponsored to attend essential research and conservation skills course in Borneo

Tan, one of our researchers attended a training course in Borneo during the month of October. Tan was the only Vietnamese researcher who was sponsored to attend, among 24 young researchers from 14 different countries.

The Tropical Biology Association Training Field course 2019 was held in Danum Valley, with a focus on proposal writing, reporting, conservation and field skills for multiple species. Attendees also had time to discover and enjoy the beauty of biodiversity there as well as see some rescue centers for sun bears and orangutans in Sipelok. In addition, Tan had a chance to exchange knowledge, experience and share successful stories about conservation with the attendees. Tan hopes to put all knowledge and skills learnt from the course into practice in his work at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife.