This is the moment rescuers save an adorable endangered pangolin – the world’s most trafficked mammal species – after finding it trapped behind a porcelain toilet.
The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is thought to have climbed into the narrow space behind the toilet through a hole in the wall – and then could not get out again.
Video Credit: AsiaWire
The scaly mammal, which is critically endangered, had no choice but to wait until authorities helped it out of its predicament in the town of Jinsha, which is in Jixi County in China’s eastern province of Anhui.
Footage of its rescue on 19th July shows officers having dismantled the porcelain toilet, which was inside a railway workers’ dormitory, and carrying it outside with the pangolin still stuck inside.
With no way of freeing the distressed animal without breaking the toilet, officers can be seen carefully smashing the porcelain with a hammer and allowing the pangolin to fall out.
The cute animal curls itself up into a ball but is later placed into a cardboard box, where forestry bureau officers snap photos of it and measure it for their records.
After determining that it had suffered no injuries, the rangers later released it back into the wild.
Chinese pangolin – one of eight pangolin species – are found in mainland China, Taiwan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands.
They are classed as critically endangered on the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Despite their global protected status and trading ban in mainland China, pangolins are still the most trafficked animal in the world.
In China, pangolins are poached for their scales, which are ingredients in traditional Chinese medicines said to cure anything from cancer to the common cold.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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