- 2 days ago
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Okay, driving towards a huge storm cloud, on the way to try and stake out a pangolin burrow,
00:17I've got like an infrared camera, I've got like heat seeking, I've got camera traps,
00:21I've got everything, and it all could go horribly wrong. It's a huge cloud.
00:30Update, it's raining.
00:41My fellow crew members, Jerry and Lee, have gone to put out cameras right where the pangolin is sleeping,
00:49we hope, and my job is to stay here and look after the boat.
01:00Yeah. A little bit heavy.
01:07We're going to go around and see if we can get a little bit closer to the burrow.
01:12Oh, I can see Jerry.
01:15Pangolin researcher Jiazhe Lin, aka Jerry,
01:18Can you throw me the rope?
01:20has led us to this known burrow.
01:22Pangolins are a critically endangered mammal, so tonight represents a rare opportunity to see one in the wild.
01:33But because they're mostly nocturnal, I need to settle in for what could be a very long night.
01:41I'm surrounded by the sounds of the jungle.
01:43Oh, I can hear the nocturnal birds starting to wake up, and hopefully the pangolin is too.
01:52Pangolins have been around for 50 million years.
01:56Yeah, I think it's just around.
01:59I'm starting to see why there are still so many secrets to unearth about them.
02:03I feel like I'm starting to go to a side.
02:05After hours of waiting,
02:10I think he went.
02:12Jerry loses the signal.
02:14I think he escaped.
02:15He escaped.
02:16Yeah.
02:17Out the other side.
02:19Gave us the slip, the little bugger.
02:23A look back on camera footage later confirmed that the sneaky pangolin had escaped through one of the burrow's multiple exits.
02:30You have to take extreme measures to see a pangolin.
02:37They're so secretive and so remote and so unique that I sort of feel like I'm chasing a fever dream.
02:49As a nature journalist, I spend a lot of my time observing wildlife from behind my binoculars.
02:56But not this time.
02:58Seeing animals like this is absolutely incredible.
03:02In this series, I'm getting up close and personal.
03:07Oh my God.
03:09No matter how deadly the animal.
03:11Brilliant.
03:11That's fantastic.
03:13And it's not just for fun.
03:16That's going to be your only chance.
03:17Get it on.
03:18I'll be joining scientists on location as they try and gain a deeper understanding of animals
03:24we think we know.
03:29So adorable.
03:31This time, it's the sun to pangolin.
03:33These mysterious, scale-covered animals are the most trafficked mammal on the planet.
03:42So, the clock is ticking for scientists to uncover their secrets.
03:47Do you see it?
03:48That's the head.
03:49What?
03:50He's huge.
03:51Oh my goodness.
03:52I'm Dr. Anne Jones, and things are about to get wild.
03:57My expedition to find a wild pangolin has led me to a precious wildlife corridor in Saba,
04:18a state in the north of Borneo.
04:24In the heart of this remote rainforest lies the Danau-Girang field centre.
04:29Hey!
04:30Oh!
04:31Good catch.
04:32Which will be my home for the next week.
04:35It's so isolated here that everything from drinking water to camera gear must be ferried in on these little boats.
04:45Hello!
04:46Hey!
04:47How's the journey?
04:48I'm a little bit wet.
04:50Oh, this way, baby.
04:51Oh!
04:52Do you need a pull?
04:53I do.
04:53I do.
04:54Okay.
04:56Jerry will be my guide for the week.
04:58He's in the middle of a PhD looking into possibly the weirdest of all mammals, the Malaysian, or Sunda pangolin,
05:08one of 10 species found across Asia and Africa.
05:11So, this is on main building, where we eat and we work.
05:16The facility is devoted to research into the wildlife of Saba and pangolins are currently a hot topic because of their links to infectious diseases like COVID.
05:29Good afternoon, everyone.
05:30I'm Jerry, as you may already know.
05:33So, I'm sitting down with some fellow nature nerds to find out more about these secretive creatures.
05:39Pangolin.
05:40Pangolin is actually derived from the Malay word panguling, which means the one who roll up.
05:44And then they curl into a ball when threatened.
05:46You can see it from this video.
05:47Although this is a great defence against most predators, it makes them an easy target for poachers to snatch up.
05:57So, pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world.
06:00I think everyone kind of know that.
06:02Some part of the world actually take their meat as delicacy, but we don't actually know reese associating with it.
06:09What makes this potentially dangerous for humans is that the animal's diseases might transfer across species when they're eaten as bush meat.
06:19We want to know what are the viruses that are associating with pangolin.
06:22In fact, COVID-19 was identified in Sunder pangolins within months of the start of the pandemic.
06:29These strange anteaters are also trafficked for their unique armor-like scales.
06:39Pangolin is the only mammal with true scale.
06:42People believe that their scale have medicinal value, which is not true because it's made of keratin, just like our hair and fingernail.
06:50The confiscated amount of pangolin scale is way more than elephant ivory and also rhino horn.
06:56So, this is how their scales look like.
07:02They're huge!
07:04Yes.
07:05This is from an adult.
07:06Well, they look like a cross between a shark tooth and a seashell.
07:09So, we're talking about mammals here.
07:11We're not talking about a weird sort of lizard.
07:13Yeah.
07:14Who are they closely related to?
07:15It's actually way more related to cat and dog than other animals.
07:20To cats and dogs?
07:21Yeah.
07:22Because they are almost impossible to follow 24-7, we have to rely on another set of eyes to see what they get up to.
07:32And PhD student Maz Jumail is a bit of a trail camera expert.
07:37It's kind of like a passive way of looking at very, like, elusive animals.
07:43This is the best chance to actually see them in the wild.
07:47Yeah.
07:48What's the chances of me actually seeing one, you reckon?
07:50Randomly?
07:51In the wild?
07:52Two percent?
07:53Best chance to get them from the camera.
07:56I mean, I wish I hadn't known that before I flew out from Australia.
07:59I mean...
08:00I just pray.
08:02The sun has finally come out, and we're heading off on my first research mission.
08:14Setting up the motion sensor cameras.
08:19What are the signs you look for in the environment that a pangolin could be here?
08:22We look for a sign that's, like, freshly dug.
08:24Yeah.
08:25If the tree have a good cavity, because they are the semi-arboreal species, so they sometimes
08:30actually sleep on the tree branches.
08:33So, this pangolin could be in a freshly dug burrow, under a tree, or because it's semi-arboreal,
08:42it could also be sleeping on a tree branch.
08:45But, like, which tree?
08:48Pangolins are so elusive.
08:55You know, they're not just going to give up their secrets willy-nilly.
08:59They're going to make us work for it.
09:01So, we're on our way to put out a camera trap.
09:03We're going to leave it out for the whole duration of my stay.
09:06And, yeah, I hope the pangolins reward this hot and sweaty mosquito lychee walk with some
09:15awesome pangolin selfies.
09:17So, that's the entrance there.
09:21Yeah!
09:22You can see that it's still quite flooded now.
09:24Yeah.
09:25But the water is flowing out.
09:26So, hopefully, in the next few days, the water will be all dry out.
09:32Good.
09:33And then, animals will start using it again.
09:34So, Maz, why is it that you do this type of work?
09:39As a scientist, I have a lot of questions, and being in the forest doing field work,
09:44it's kind of like giving me answers to all my questions.
09:47Yeah.
09:48Yeah.
09:49I understand that.
09:50Ooh, that burrows right in the centre of the shot.
09:51Yes.
09:52Great job.
09:53So, Gerry, why is it important to actually know who the pangolins might be bunking in with?
09:58Knowing what animals are sleeping with pangolin, we can actually know how a pathogen can transmit from one another.
10:05Research shows pangolins share sleeping sites with bats and rats, both of which can carry a raft of diseases deadly to humans.
10:16So, in the burrow is when they're in really close proximity.
10:20So, animals that otherwise might be dispersed in the environment are coming into potentially physical contact inside these burrows.
10:26So, that's a disease transmission potential event.
10:30And consuming wildlife always comes with a risk.
10:33And who knows, like, if we keep doing this, we might actually face another pandemic.
10:38So, this burrow sort of reminds me of a university share house, right?
10:45Because who you end up bunking in with is who you end up sharing diseases with.
10:51It's wild to think that the occupants of these little burrows in Borneo could have a significant impact on the human race.
11:01How do you remember where you put the camera traps?
11:04Oh, GPS.
11:05Ah.
11:06That's good.
11:07Yeah.
11:08Because, like, they're camouflaged and we're in a forest.
11:10Yeah.
11:13Over the next week, the water level drops.
11:16And the burrow becomes an active home again for monitor lizards, moon rats, mongooses and yellow-throated martins.
11:28But no pangolin.
11:32Time to head back to my own burrow.
11:37This is home for the next week or so.
11:41It's pretty basic.
11:42It's got a generator.
11:43So, that's good.
11:45And I just hope these doors are strong enough to keep all the wildlife out.
11:50As I settle down for the night, winged hunters emerge from the shadows.
11:58And when the roar of the generator is finally switched off, all that remains is the jungle's nightly chorus and my dreams of finding a scaly mammal.
12:08My first night in the jungle actually wasn't too bad.
12:27And I'm up early to check out what other critters I can spot.
12:34One of the things about being in the jungle is you have to watch your pockets.
12:44Well, not really.
12:45There are mafiosos here.
12:47That's what everyone calls these guys.
12:49Long-tailed macaques.
12:51And I sort of think that in some ways they're the antithesis of the pangolins for me.
12:56Because I haven't seen a pangolin yet.
12:58But I've seen plenty of these.
13:00In fact, you almost trip over them when you're walking here at the field centre.
13:04And no matter where you are in the forest, there's likely to be one just looking at you with their cute little eyebrows.
13:13And I think they're sort of adorable.
13:15But around here people say they're a nuisance because they like to do things like steal your washing off the line
13:22and like look at your camera traps or whatever you're trying to do.
13:25They like to fiddle with things.
13:26So, yeah, it's a meet the locals sort of day.
13:34Another local hero is PhD student Amanda Wilson, a nocturnal specialist who is taking us upriver tonight
13:45to survey pangolin activity deeper in the jungle.
13:51Is it actually safe to go into the jungle at night?
13:54Yeah, well, there's a lot of dangers out there.
13:56Yeah.
13:57You should look out for snakes.
13:58Uh-huh.
13:59Wasps.
14:00Python.
14:01Cobra.
14:02We have some creepy crawlies around, like, um, centibees.
14:05Crocodiles.
14:06Sometimes we see elephants.
14:08Yeah, basically be careful with everything.
14:11So don't touch...
14:12Yeah, those...
14:13Don't touch anything.
14:14Yeah, don't touch anything.
14:15OK.
14:16Good.
14:17Good.
14:18This will be fun.
14:19Despite the possible danger, it's clear that to increase my chances of seeing a pangolin in the wild,
14:26I have to search for them day and night.
14:30I'm feeling great about heading into the jungle at night.
14:33Because this is the thing with secretive species.
14:36They're often out and about doing things in the middle of the night when there's less predators like us.
14:43So the time to see things is when it's dark.
14:48Oh!
14:49Like that tree root.
14:51Number one killer in the jungle.
14:54Yes.
14:56Some nocturnal animals have a reflective layer behind their retina called Tapitum lucidum,
15:02which basically gives them night vision.
15:05I just got 5,000 spiderwebs in my face.
15:09Humans don't have it, sadly.
15:11Usually when we walk at night, we try to look for reflective eye shines.
15:15Mm-hmm.
15:16So it makes it easier for us to spot them.
15:19Even creatures as small as frogs, they have reflective eye shines.
15:23Mm-hmm.
15:24So that means that if someone's watching us, we will hopefully be able to see them.
15:28Yeah.
15:29See something?
15:30I did see some eye shine, but it went on and off.
15:34It looked twice.
15:36Green.
15:37Mm-hmm.
15:38Might have been.
15:39Actually, might have been eye shine on my glasses from behind, was it?
15:43That's my salt.
15:46My eyes may have been deceived, but there are other signs we can look out for.
15:51What do you reckon?
15:52Could that be pangolin food?
15:54Yeah.
15:55Let's just make this place look even better for pangolin.
15:58They feast on around 200,000 ants or termites every day, using their sticky tongues,
16:05which can extend a whopping 25 centimetres.
16:08Do they munch them up before they go into their tummy?
16:11Nope.
16:12So pangolin don't actually have any teeth?
16:14They don't have teeth.
16:15Yeah.
16:16They're a mammal that doesn't have teeth.
16:17Yeah.
16:18It's also one of the unique creatures as a mammal that don't have teeth.
16:22Instead of teeth, they have spines in their stomach and sometimes swallow small stones
16:28and sand to help grind their food.
16:31Well, look, as much as I'm enjoying seeing these ants, it's also making me incredibly itchy
16:36looking at them for some reason.
16:37I'm already scratching.
16:38Yeah.
16:39Yeah.
16:40Let's go.
16:41Let's go.
16:42Sorry, ants.
16:43Out the way.
16:44Out the way, ants.
16:45I love being places with experts who can tell you about everything that you're seeing
16:50and hearing.
16:51Of course, no pangolin.
17:01Because pangolins are at risk of extinction, I'm curious to know more about how they live
17:07in Borneo's modern landscape of mixed agriculture and jungle.
17:12By tracking over 20 individuals using VHF radio signals, research assistant Ray Zygus and
17:18Rodney and the team are mapping out their habitat use, uncovering important information about
17:24where they roam, sleep, eat and breed.
17:28So are these two males?
17:29Yeah.
17:30Pangolin, they're territorial.
17:31So when they encounter each other, they will actually fight.
17:35Even though they are territorial, they can tolerate each other to a certain extent.
17:45Right.
17:46Yeah.
17:47Okay.
17:48So they have overlapping territories if they're males.
17:50Yes.
17:51But what about females?
17:52So the first wild pangolin that we tagged, is there any...
17:57So this is the first one?
17:58Yeah, it's a female.
18:00Ooh.
18:01They've discovered that while pangolins are happy to use a variety of habitats, females
18:09still prefer to raise their young in the rainforest.
18:22So for nesting, they mainly prefer the Balfazan, the forested area.
18:29She have a home range that's like totally inside both of the male home range.
18:34Hers is much, much smaller.
18:36Smaller.
18:37Yeah.
18:38So what's going on?
18:39They just don't move as much as the male.
18:41That's what we think.
18:43We have encountered, you know, male and female, like sharing one serving site.
18:47Does that indicate you think they've got a sort of social life?
18:50More like a...
18:52You can call it social, but I think it would be more like a friend with benefits.
18:57I've spent the week with my gumboots full of mud and my trousers full of twigs.
19:17I've done stakeouts, set camera traps and been devoured by insects.
19:22And it's today's trip that is my very last chance to see a pangolin in the wild.
19:28We're currently in one of the tributaries of Kinabatangan.
19:31We're heading towards a pangolin called Lanny.
19:33He's a sub-adult male pangolin.
19:38Right.
19:39So that means like he's not sexually mature yet.
19:41Yeah.
19:42Yeah.
19:43Still got a little bit to go.
19:44Yeah.
19:45We'll be pursuing two tagged pangolins.
19:48A teenager, Lanny, and a large adult male called Kim.
19:54And according to Jerry's data, they should hopefully be somewhere in this patch of forest.
20:00Going to the mud.
20:01Whoa.
20:02Mud.
20:03Mud.
20:04Mud.
20:05Mud.
20:06Mud.
20:07Mud.
20:08Mud.
20:09Mud.
20:10Mud.
20:11Mud.
20:12Mud.
20:13Mud.
20:14Mud.
20:15Mud.
20:16Mud.
20:17Mud.
20:18Mud.
20:19Mud.
20:20Mud.
20:21Mud.
20:22Mud.
20:23Mud.
20:24Mud.
20:25Mud.
20:26Mud.
20:27Mud.
20:28Mud.
20:29Mud.
20:30Mud.
20:31Mud.
20:32Mud.
20:33Mud.
20:34Mud.
20:35Yeah, it's like somewhere in that direction.
20:39We're unable to go in a straight line,
20:42so we're sort of like wibble wobbling all the way around the pangolin
20:45trying to find a way that we can get close.
20:49As exhausting as this is, it's actually a good thing.
20:53You want a pangolin, an animal whose greatest threat is humans,
20:57to be very well hidden.
20:59And so even though we have a little tag on this one,
21:02it's extremely difficult to find, and that is a good thing.
21:05This place is spiky.
21:19It's getting spiky through your pants, spiky.
21:21That's how spiky it is.
21:26After two hours, feeling like we're staggering around in circles,
21:31Gerry's VHF tracker gives us some good news.
21:34What do you think?
21:37I think the pangolin's just there.
21:39We're down at zero.
21:41That's really good.
21:43The lower the number on the device,
21:46the closer we are to Lenny, the pangolin.
21:49So where do you think it is?
21:50I think it's here.
21:51This big one?
21:52Yeah.
21:55Oh, my God, it's so dense.
21:57How high up will it go to sleep?
22:01Go up until the highest point.
22:03Oh, really?
22:04So we've got to look at all the tree?
22:06Yeah, every part, especially the denser part of the tree.
22:11Gerry has previously filmed the sunda pangolins using their claws and semi-prehensile tails
22:18to climb in a surprisingly agile way.
22:22Will it stand out if I see it?
22:25Not really.
22:25It's quite small, so it's, yeah.
22:28How big?
22:29Four kilo.
22:30Oh, tiny.
22:31Tiny.
22:31Oh, no.
22:32Four kilo, like medium-sized cat size.
22:35Yeah.
22:35Yeah.
22:36Small.
22:36Little, oh, God.
22:43I would like to have seen them.
22:45It's okay.
22:46We still have Kim.
22:47We still have one more try.
22:48One more try?
22:49Yeah.
22:49Which way is out?
22:50There.
22:51That way?
22:52Yes.
22:53And off we go again, back into the thick jungle, this time tracking the second tagged pangolin.
23:06That beef really does represent my last shot at seeing one.
23:12And as we hit the five-hour mark of our trek, I get deja vu as each spiky piece of impenetrable forest starts to look the same.
23:21What sort of reading are you getting, Gerry?
23:32We're at zero.
23:35We're at zero.
23:35We're at zero?
23:37Yeah.
23:40I think it's just here.
23:43Can I have the torch?
23:46So who is this that you've got tagged?
23:48So it's Kim.
23:49Kim?
23:49A big boy.
23:50Forty, fourteen kilogram.
23:52Big.
23:54I want to try to see whether I can see him.
24:02What's that?
24:02Oh, yeah, he's here.
24:11Want to come down and have a look?
24:12I do.
24:13Nice.
24:14You ready?
24:15Yeah, I am.
24:18That way?
24:19Yeah, careful.
24:20Yeah, careful.
24:20This is where it's slippery.
24:22Is it?
24:22Yeah.
24:23So if you look into this hole...
24:26Do you see it?
24:29That's the head.
24:31What?
24:32He's huge.
24:34He's huge.
24:35You didn't grow up.
24:36He's huge.
24:39Oh, my goodness.
24:40Do you see the head?
24:41I can.
24:42Yeah.
24:43It's like looking at a fossil, because he sort of looks like shale.
24:47All the scales on top of, like, each other, it's like a rock formation.
24:52That's what he looks like.
24:55I can see him breathing.
24:57I can see his scales moving when he breathes.
25:01Do you get attached to them?
25:02Because he's clearly a cool dude.
25:06I try not to get too attached to them.
25:08Even though we give them a name, like, they're not ours.
25:11You know, they belong to the wild.
25:14Okay, you know how you said that they were closely related to cats?
25:18Yeah.
25:18It is like watching a cat nap, because he's, like, completely zonked.
25:22And I can just see his breathing.
25:24It's like the most peaceful mammal, reptile, toothless, dragon thing.
25:31Ever.
25:37You can understand why they get poached so easily, right?
25:40Yeah, he's not offering any resistance, is he?
25:42Even they roll up, you can still grab them.
25:46Oh, well, I could watch this forever.
25:51He's a good boy.
25:53Yeah.
25:53Sometimes when you're interested in nature, and therefore in conservation, the world can
26:07feel really heavy.
26:09I feel like the science that I've seen is on a cliff edge.
26:16This could be the very first and the very last of the science that we get to conduct on this
26:23sundipangolin before it goes extinct.
26:27But my week here at Dhanagirang Field Centre has filled me with a lot of energy, because
26:40I'm always going to be able to conjure up the image of a softly breathing, sleeping pangolin,
26:50and it's safe in its burrow whenever I need to remember the magic that nature holds.
26:58I truly believe these students are going to be the ones that lift these species out of the crisis,
27:07if they can.
27:09It gives me a positive feeling, a regenerative sort of feeling, like I can go home and do
27:19something myself.
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