A Sunda Pangolin, also known as Malayan Scaly Anteater (Manis javanica), strayed into Dr Elsie Heng’s garden recently. This largely nocturnal animal is an excellent tree climber, as can be seen in the video below.
According to Elsie, “It climbed down and explored our gardens freely, climbed over the fence into my garden from my neighbour’s. It was in another neighbour’s garden, not Mylinh, who has dogs. My dogs were inside my house and not allowed into the garden.
“Michael, my neighbour told me he had a previous encounter with a pangolin, it went into the drain and must have found its way back into the forested areas by running along it. So we put it in the drain, and probably that’s what it did. At least, inside the drain, there is no risk of being run over by a car,” continued Elsie.
“I called Acres, but they didn’t think it was urgent. I guess it was OK. It must have been driven out of Bukit Brown cemetery by the roadworks there.
“A treat for me and my girls to see it, really active little fella!”
Dr Elsie Heng and Dr Jean Ho
Singapore
4th November 2016
Note: People living near the MacRitchie Reservoir forest regularly see pangolins straying into their gardens – see HERE. It would be a good idea to contact the National Parks Board who can relocate them back into the forest. Many pangolins get run over by vehicles when crossing roads. Also, their slow clumsy gait and tendency to curl into a ball when threatened, make them easy targets for capture by poachers.