Wilaffectionate creatures. Ge, diekmann are you gonna open up for me . Narrator . Before they are lost to the world forever. And by viewers like you. Thank you. O0 c1 narrator pangolins are shy, secretive creatures. Quite unlike anything else on earth. Their claws can dig through concrete. Their thin, sticky tongues are as long as their bodies. They can travel along on their hind legs. Al these ans have walked the planet for over 40 million years, and there are eight distinct species. Four are found in africa. And four in asia. Pangolins are the worlds only truly scaly mammals. Their scales, just like human fingernails, are made from keratin. But this remarkable natural armor is the cause of their destruction. In the last 20 years, the demand for pangolin scales for use in traditional asian medicines has decimated their numbersworl. Today, a pangolin will be taken from the wild every five minutes. [ diekmann speaking native language ] [ man speaking native language on cellpne ] in namibia, nnnservationist maria diek is on the front line of the battle to save these animals. Shes been contacted by a stranger with a pangolin to sell. Diekmann if we see that its alive and i cant convince this guy, ive got to walk away. Thats really hard. But if i dont walk away anthen i pay him an extraordinary amount of money, then i promise you, tomorrow hes ba in the bush and hes getting the next one. Iveot a 50 50 chance. You can film for a couple more minutes,nd then camera away. Narrator the call has brought maria to a poor township, where selling a pangolin could bring great wealth. Sh but s determined to pay nothing to ensure no value is placed on these animals. Lo diekmann i to see her, see if shes okay, but if you keep r, she is going to di shes going to die. Theres not a question about it. Theres nothing you can feed her. Nobody in the world has kept pangolins in captivity except for three people. Im one of them. This is a guy whos taken an opportunity. He probably just wants some exa money for his family, tomaybe even a good thing ut his kids in school, who knows, and he thinks that this is a way to do it. Narrator after a tense fourhour negotiation, maria leaves with the ngolin in hand. But this is just the beginning. Diekmann every moment counts. Its really a lifeanddeath situation. Or narrpangolins are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity diekmann tell me youre still alive. Narrator fortunately, this traumatized animal will have a second cnce, tell me ythanks to maria. E. Shes one of only a handful of people in the world to have successfully rehabilitated pangolins. But for every one she saves, thousands more are being taken from the wild. Reporter the pangolin is so soughtafter, its considered the most widely trafficked animal in the world, critically endangered and facing extinction. Reporter 2 it is a difficult battle, and the odds arent with them. Narrator maria runs an Organization Called rest the rare endangered species trust. Her fight for pangolins began just five years ago. Diekmann my first real pangolin that came to me that i snt any time with, he bought her to save her, and he called me. We formed this incredible bond, which pangolins dont usually do with humans, but we realized why. Two days later, as ias preparing to get a tracker on her and try and release her, e actually gave birth. Start filming. Woman its filming. Diekmann this has never haened before. Narrator this was the first time anyone had filmed the birth of a pangolin. S diekmann she iting till she felt secure enough, and i was able to provide that. At that time in the world, nobody else had ever raised and i wa baby that young. That. There were no books that we could turn to, there was really nobody that had ever done what we wegetting ready. Okay, so, this little boy going into. We had to sort of pioneer howa. And look at that. Its 3. 99. Oh, my god, this is so excitin narratsince that first encounter, ov maria has rescued er 50 cape pangolins. Diekmann youre going to go back into the wild today. Are you gonna open up for . Narrator each one teaches her something new about these littleunderstood creatures. But in 2015, a very special animal arrived. A baby pangolin that would offer a deeper insight to her ecies, and change everything. Diekmann the saddest arrivals ever. Af the mother was seriously abused. Shed been kicked around. It was obviously on a cement floor, because you could see streaks of the paint on her scal. Honey bun had no damage whatsoever. So what had probably happened is the mother had rolled around honey bun to protect her. Narrator but the mother was so traumatized by her mistreatment that she escaped as soon as she could. [ birds chirping ]. Leaving maria to raise the newlynamed honey bun. [ clatter ]. In a unique living situation. Sharing her home. With a troublesome toddl diekmann honey bun . Honey bun theres nothing for you in there. [ ghs ] when one little by pangolin comes in,bo youre talking years and years and years of complete commitment. Narrator young pangolins require roundtheclock attention. He and asget older, the biggest weallenge is keeping thefed. No18 months old, honey bun has developed quite an appetite. Like all pangolins, she feeds exclusively onnsects, sniffing them out with her highly sensitive nose. She has no teeth, but uses her long, sticky tongue to lap them up. Her scales, able to withstand the bite of a lion, help protect her from angry ants. An she shuts her nostrils and ears when feeding. Pangolins need to eat millions of insects in a year. The only way maria can provide this diet is to allow her pangolins to forage naturally for up to five hours a day. Diekmann oh, my gooess gracious, if i had known that i was going to have to spend this much time walking pangolins, i might have condguessed myself. Narror honey bun can cover up to six miles to feed each day. And maria goes with her, watching her every move. Their trusting relationship gives maria the chance to observe natural pangolin behavior. Diekmann ive spent thousands and thousands of hours in the bush walking behind pangolins. Yeah, ive probably observed things that nobody in the world has ever seen. A lot of people have thought at they knew a lot about pangolins, and those ha become facts that are actually incorrect. Bo ths will tell you that they eat termites and ants. No, they mainly eat ants. The books will tell you theyre nocturnal. No, no in winter, theyre not nocturnal atll. Is actually determining whats true,n now, whats not true, and figuring out really more about them s so that we cane them. Narrator pangolins are so difficult to study in the wild, we dont even know how long they live. Marias uno ue access is helpingbuild our understanding of th. She meticulously records everything she observes. And is analyzing this with the help of students, ch as harvard graduate rena vernitz. Vernitz honey bun is incredibly important. No one else has really been able to follow a pangolin, like, through their life is incrlike this. Ortant. So, we can really see, like, how feedingpatterns behavior changes, not just between seasons, but during different life stages, so you really understand, like, the whole pangolin lifecycle. With all the data we have from honey bun,st theres ju wholenew world of possibility opened up for pangolin conservation in the wild. Narrator piece byeliece, honey bun is hng to unravel the mysteries that surround her kind. But time is not on their sid [ thunder rumbles ] african pangolins are increasingly under threat. Diekmann about three years ago, we started stopping shipments, looking mainly for rhino and for elephant, sd started finding thousaof t. That was the real wakeup call for all of us. And nobody knew. Shes a little disturbed this evening. You know, weve got a really big storm coming in. Yeah. And she just doesnt want to sleep. And theres. I want to show you something. This is the ki of stuff that actually keeps me awake at night. Narrator the problem of pangolin poaching infrica stems from the other side of the world. 4,reporter more than 0 pangolins were killed to collect the nearlythre. Narrator in asia, pangolin scaletihave been used in traal medicine for centuries, and asian spteies have long been hfor their scales. Reporter 2 restaurants here openly, but illegally, serve pangolin on the menu. Na ator . And their meat. Diekmann well, you can see some of these guys dont even have scales. L fferent ages. Theres quite a young one. Look at this little baby here probably a newborn or just about ready to be born. Ah, and this is a delicacy in asia. Sp [ man eaking native language ] narrator this demand ha driven asian pangoli to the bblack markettion, and l is now turning to african species. Hundreds of thousands of african pangolin scales are being illegally shipped out of the continent. This increased trafficking means more confiscations and more pangolins in need of mias help. Un [ r rumbles ] she has to prepare for the worst, so shes building for the future. Diekmann i basically sold just about everything i owned. My family thought i was absolute mad, and my mother was terrified that i was going to be on the street, but its absolutely the best decision ive ever made. Narrator with help frjust for pangolins. Ions,mr ma di we now have a permanent home. Ec its about 300res, so weve got enough room for our animals to move around in. The center has to become onot for our reputation,rs but simply because theres pangolins that need care in this country. Narrator fortunately, one recent arrival is already making a big difference. Diekmann steven is this amazing young man who walked into our lives out of the blue. We oved to this new area, and he saw our vehicle, and he approached one of my students and basically said, i want to work for these people. And hes been here for about six months, and yo bwould have thought hen here for 20 years. Honey don adores steven, and hes her. Steven i feel like its not a job, its something god wanted me to do. Narrator now steven has the responsibility of walking honey bun every day. E where goes, he must follow not easy in the dense bush. And its clear whos really in char. Steven shes the boss. Narrator with steven on board, things are looking up for maria. But every day, it seems there is more bad news for pangolins. Big confiscation yestof elephant ivory, but also pangolins, so its just getting worse and worse every day. In the last couple of months even, were seeing a lot more confiscations going on. Go its probably thing in that at least the authorities are catching people, buisi suspect a lot of it ot just due to authorities being really jacked up, its due to a lot more trafficking going on. Narrator and it seems the problem is getting closer to home. Diekmann wheres the wire . Steven this one. Narratid steven has found evce of snare traps. Steven maria, i got two wires again here. One have got a loop. There. Diekmann thats 100 it. Ah see, theres the loop that goes in right like. All right. [ sighs ] oh, man. Now any animal puts its head through, and then as it gets its shoulds through and the shoulders are too big. The wire closes in around their neck. So, its qente a quite a violdeath. [ sighs ] if i didnt love my car so much, qui would kick it. I just. That somebody thinks they have the right to come onto my property and kill my animals and stevens animals. Its s. Its just wrong. Narrator as maria is fighting to protect her own backyard, there arfrmore cries for help farther afield, and theyre growing increasingly disturbing. Diekmann i just had this gentleman write to me. He was traveling through angola. Now hes just sent me a bunch of pictures. And there are a bunch of pangolins hanging from a wire, and theyre in different positions in every picture. I just thought it was a whole set of different pictures, and i realize. That these pangolins are alive. [ sighs ] yeah, i had to tell him to leave the pangolins there. Cant smuggle pangolins. We cant be thought to be smuggling pangolins. Weve got to work within the parameters of our laws and our governments and our agreements with other countries. Woman how does that feel . Diekmann very disempowering, really frustrating. [ voice breaking ] you know, its not enough to just save honey bun. Its not going to help us to make changes here in africa and we dont stop the asian market. The asian market is theey market, and if we can slow that downt or start to stop to that, thats going to solve a lot of our problems. Sometimes you just feel li this one little pers in this big, big ocean. R narrator foria, the time has come to take action. Shes go vg to journey into they heart of the pangolin crisis. Diekmann asias gone through what africas going to start going through. Whats important now is that i go over there what africas going to start and i learn as much as i can. My reception just goes out. Im very lucky to hat. Reception at the mom narrator shes reaching out to people in asia who, likeroer, are working on the line. Di mann im not the only person trying to save pangolins. Th es not a lot of people. All. Very few of us have ever met. Narrator but maria is also hoping she can do mething to combat the demand for pangolins. Diekmann in asia, were looking at the end consumer, so if we can figure out with the asians any way to stop that end consumerism, then we can stop the poaching over here. Its the longest ill ever have been away from steven and honey bun, and i think stevens terrified. F but hes going to e. Hell be perfect,e and im a phoncall away if he needs me. But i think hes going be perfect. [ voice breaking ] if you need anything, you just call, okay . Steven yes. Diekmann youll do great. Im really proud of you, okay . Im going to miss honey bun terribly. Take good care of her. Shes a part of my life. Shes been part of mlife for so many months and years now that im going to miss her. [ steven sighs ] narrator marias mission will take her over 6,000 miles from home to a completely different world. Maria wants to prepare for the challenge rescuing more of africas pangolins. So she is here to meet someone whos been leading the fight to save the asian species. Thai van npayen is a world leader iolin conservation. Van nguyen how are you doing . Di mann oh great. Oh, thai, how oh, its amazing to finally meet you and be here. Narrator thai runs an organn called save vietnams wildlife. Based in the forests of the countrys Oldest National park, his team is dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating the worlds most endangered species of pangolins. Diekmann meetinthai has been a dream come true. You know, the sort of Kindred Spirit that has dedicated basically his life to pangolins. What a pleasure to meet somebody else that that makes you realize that youre not so crazy after all. I cant wait to see some of the asian pangolins. Rusman hiya. Van nguyen hello. Dimann hi. Hi, im maria. Rusman hi, nice to meet you. Im maddie. Diekmann hi, maddie. Nice to meet you. Rusman welcome. Welcome to vietnam. Diekmannthank you. Narrator animal manager madelon rusman is keen to show maria some of honey buns asian cousins. Diekmann oh. Shes beautiful. Narrator this is a sunda pangolin. Rusmando you want to put her the scales . Narrator this adult female has been at the center for five weeks, and is being prepare for release. Diekmann lets put her this. Is this hair . Rusman yeah, so, the difference between the african and asian ones is that the asian onhave. Diekmann her back feet have have much longer claws than our cape. Our cape, the back f t dont have claws st the front. Rusman really . Diekmann yeah. Shes shes absolutely gorgeous. Narrator unlike the cape pangolins that maria knows, the sunda spends much ofts life in the trees. Its the most widely distributed species in asia. Thebut as a resultuch oftsof illegal trade,s. Its now critically endangered. [ engine idling ] save vietnams wildlife is a lifeline for pangolins rescued from the black market theyvceived over 400 this year alone. And more are arriving all the time. Van nguyen no. Diekmann okay. Narrator 15 Sunda Pangolins were confiscated near the vietnamese border with china. The team assesses the surviving animals for any sign of injury. Theyve all been vomiting a yellow substance. At diekmann and whs the yellow indicating . That they were forcefed . Van nguyen yeah. That is the tubes where they try to put inside the belly of the pangolinro and put h the mouth. So, you will see this here. Woman put the towel on herin man hold the l man 2 im holding it, o. Na ator these pangolins were destined for the dinner table, and forcefed to increase their weight and price. Van nguyen oh, look, th. Diekmann every single one of these pangolinst went through tme thing . Van nguyen yeah, they diekmann so they were all handled by a bunch of loud, noisy people pumping things rice into their stomach. Van nguyen yeah, yeah. Narrator when frightened, a ngolins First Defense is to roll into a protectivball, ea but this makes it prey for poachers. Most of the animalfrare mercifully free injury. Diekmann you hungry, maybe . Narrator but one young male is in real trouble. His back leg has been severed, most likely by a sna. Van nguyen oh, my god. [ sighs ] diekmann it should give him a pretty good chance of survival. Van nguyen yeah. [ sighs ] diekmann the amount of animals coming in, its almost overwhelming. If the demand continues to increase in asia, like it is now, then africas heading for this type of situation. Ich means the confiscations are not going to be one or two animals. Theyre going to be 10 or 20 animals, exactly whthais dealin. If i envision that happening at our center, wed have a really, really difficult time. Narrator it would be impossible for maria to cater for the number of pangolins that thais team handles in a year. But theres one big advantage here. Readily available food. They can buy frozen ant pupae, a popular snacfor peop. But theyre too expensive for maria to import back home. Rusman i cant imagine you have to walk five hours per animal. Diekmann yeah, i cant imagine you get to open yourreezer. Rusman yeah. Diekmann wow. Narrator ant nests can also be collected from the trees, if you can reach them. Diekmann theyre like Little Package dinners for the pangolins. This would never be something we could do in namibia. Unrtunately, our ants are in the ground, so, you know, we would basically have to decimate a onemeter area, and by the time weve done that, to get that piece of ground out, the ants are going to be forming, you know, poison for the pangolins, the ants are going and itll never work. Narrator but there is one area where maria can learn a lot from this team pangolin surgery. The young male with the missing leg has been sedated, and is about to undergo a lifesaving operation. Diekmann last night, he showed an amazing attitude. He i hes a plucky little guy. All the more courage to him. Pa narratorolins are so rarely kept in captivityce that pres like this are not common practice. For the vets, each one ia new perience. Doekmann this is like ors working in a war zone. Theyve got patientter pati, and so they have to le,n to work very quick they have to learn to determine exactly whats wrong and what theyre going to be able to do about it, and thats what these guys have been dealing with. Ly i was acturiting notes to myself ra blood pressure, hear, on the amount of gas that theyre using. Ra narrator the operation bloodhas gone extrely well,en and the pati is starting to stir. His missing leg means cant b. So, when he recovers, hell gi