Rescued Baby Pangolin Goes For Piggyback Rides on the Back of His Adopted Human Caretaker

A baby Temminck’s pangolin named Stevie, who was rescued from poachers by the fantastic folks at African Pangolin Working Group and treated at Johannesburg Wildlife Vet, enjoys riding piggyback on his adopted caretaker, Doctor Kelsey Skinner, whenever they go outside to forage.

Stevie the pangolin was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. When he was brought to the Johannesburg Wildlife Vet Hospital, he met Dr. Kelsey Skinner and accepted her as his new mom. Kelsey fed him bottles, even burped him, and took him for walks to find termite mounds

Stevie was only three or four months old when he lost his mother to an illegal pangolin trader. Luckily, he found safety right away and thrived. He was traumatized, however, yet somehow trusting of humans. And he was very hungry.

He was a very gassy boy. I think it was just he was so greedy. He was very insistent from the get-go. We suspect he was probably anywhere between three and four months. He would still be with his mom for a good six to eight months. As strong as he was, you could see he was scared. He is very trusting despite this horrible trauma that he had gone through.

Stevie has since been released back into the wild.

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