Residents of Boitekong near Rustenburg are shocked to find a Pangolin living amongst them.
“I was driving on a dirt road outside Boitekong on July 1, it was raining a bit then suddenly an animal covered in scales landed in front of my car, it was rolled like a ball. It dropped from above as if it dropped from the sky. I did not know whether it fell from the sky or it attempted to jump the car,” Xolani Khoza, who was still afraid to touch the pangolin, said.
“I was so shocked and stopped the car immediately, that animal roll out and vanished into the bushes. I start the car and move for about 200m, then that animal come out of the bushes and stopped in front of the car.”
He said he called his younger brother and a few other people, who came and the animal was put inside a bag and they took it home.
“We asked elders about it, and they told us that it carries an important message, it is either there will be a flood, drought or a new leader will take over.”
His brother, Albert Khoza said the elder further advised them that the pangolin must be taken to a traditional leader so that it could deliver the message.
“It is the first time I see this kind of an animal. People have been telling us a lot of stories about it, that it is not everyone who can find it — it means you are lucky or you are supposed to be a rich person if you can see it. Others say it carries gold under its scales,” he said.
“All we want to do now is to give it to a chief, as elders stated it has to deliver a message to the chief.”
The presence of a pangolin in Boitekong was met with mixed reaction. Some believe it was witchcraft related while others said it worth thousand of rands.
“This animal is worth a lot of money,” said a man who identified himself as Ncube from Zimbabwe.
He said pangolin brings rain and they “fly” that is why it landed in front of Khoza’s vehicle.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Rustenburg said pangolins were endangered species and should be handed to the wildlife authorities.
According to research, pangolins are hunted and eaten in many parts of Africa and Asia. They are one of the more popular types of bush meat, while local healers use the pangolin as a source of traditional medicine.
They are also in great demand in southern China and Vietnam because their meat is considered a delicacy and some believe that pangolin scales have medicinal qualities.
Over the past decade, over one million pangolins are believed to have been illegally trafficked, making it the most trafficked animal in the world.
In November 2010, pangolins were added to the Zoological Society of London’s list of genetically distinct and endangered mammals. All eight species of pangolin are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as threatened with extinction, while two are classified as critically endangered.
– African News Agency (ANA)
