By Helen
Briggs BBC News, Science and Environment
13 February
2019
The secret
life of the world's most trafficked mammal, the pangolin, has been caught on
camera in Africa.
Footage
gives a rare insight into the behaviour of the giant pangolin, the largest of
all the scaly animals.
Observed by
remote-operated cameras, a baby takes a ride on its mother's back, while an
adult climbs a tree.
Scientists
are releasing the footage to highlight the plight of the animals, which are
being pushed to extinction by illegal hunting for scales and meat.
Large
numbers of their scales have been seized this month alone, including Malaysia's
biggest-ever interception of smuggled pangolin products.
The images
and video clips of giant pangolins, one of four species in Africa, were taken
at Uganda's Ziwa sanctuary, where the animals live alongside protected rhinos
and are safe from poaching.
Stuart Nixon
of Chester Zoo's Africa Field Programme said much of their behaviour has never
been recorded before.
"We
know so little about this species, almost everything we're picking up on camera
traps this year as a behaviour is a new thing," he told BBC News.
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