{"id":181632,"date":"2025-12-12T23:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/181632\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T23:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:21:09","slug":"rare-animal-rescued-from-traffickers-undergoes-risky-procedure-to-save-her-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/181632\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Animal Rescued From Traffickers Undergoes Risky Procedure To Save Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma De Jager and Dr. Debbie English held their breath as the MRI machine clicked around their patient. For almost an hour, they watched the machine produce images of the endangered animal\u2019s organs, tissues and spine.<\/p>\n

Finally, the ordeal ended. De Jager and Dr. English were overjoyed to see their patient, a pangolin named Heritage, wake up.<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t like doing MRIs on pangolins,\u201d De Jager, co-owner and director of\u00a0Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/a>, told The Dodo. \u201cThe anatomy does not allow us to intubate them for breathing. So, it is a risky test.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, this was the first MRI on a pangolin at ProVet Animal Hospital<\/a> in Limpopo, South Africa, ever. But they\u2019d had no other choice.<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre <\/p>\n

Heritage had recently been rescued from wildlife traffickers during an organized sting operation. Her captors, arrested for illegally poaching a pangolin, held Heritage without food or water for roughly two weeks before trying to deliver her to a buyer inside a flimsy bag.<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n

The Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre participated in the sting and took Heritage to the hospital, where Dr. English, a licensed veterinarian, examined her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was emaciated and dehydrated and dragging her tail and limping badly,\u201d De Jager said.<\/p>\n

Dr. English ran a series of X-rays and a CT scan, but nothing explained Heritage\u2019s limp. This is when the vet decided an MRI was their only option if they wanted to save the pangolin\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n

The risk paid off: Scans revealed a rare infection in Heritage\u2019s spine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never seen this before in a pangolin,\u201d De Jager said. \u201cWe cannot be 100% sure of the reason it happened, but we can be sure that her poaching added to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre <\/p>\n

Since the case was so unusual, De Jager said treating Heritage became like \u201cworking in the dark.\u201d But they refused to give up on this brave girl.<\/p>\n

They moved Heritage from the hospital to Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre, a less stressful environment, where she received antibiotics, pain relievers and steroids through an IV. She also needed oral medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have worked with over [100] pangolins with all different personalities,\u201d De Jager said. \u201cMost are very scared, as you can imagine, and don’t allow you to treat them easily. But Heritage is a gentle soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n

After two months of treatment, De Jager and Dr. English once again prepped Heritage for an MRI. She\u2019d improved, but they had to scan for any sign of lingering infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best news ever!!!!\u201d Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre posted to Facebook<\/a> on December 7. \u201cAfter a very intensive treatment program for nearly 60 days, we finally have got the all clear and Heritage is free of her infection!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the infection was gone was the most amazing feeling,\u201d De Jager said. With a clean bill of health, Heritage is set to be released by Christmas.<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre<\/p>\n

De Jager is in awe of the strength this traumatized animal showed during treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPangolins are shy, solitary creatures and really do not do well in captivity,\u201d she said. \u201cThe amount of trauma that she has gone through from humans, and the fact that she still allows me to help her, is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammals in the world. Poachers go after them for their scales, which are made of keratin and falsely said to have healing properties, or their meat, which is sold as a delicacy in some areas. The International Fund for Animal Welfare<\/a> says there are eight unique pangolin species; all are at risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

Getty Images\/Neil Aldridge<\/p>\n

Despite this bleak outlook, De Jager is optimistic about Heritage\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a confident pangolin,\u201d De Jager said. \u201cWe have found an amazing release site for her, which is close to where she originated from. We will be monitoring her carefully on release, making sure that she is adapting well and doing everything a pangolin should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre does not disclose the locations of their pangolin release sites or pangolin housing to ensure the safety of the animals. If you would like to support their work, you can donate through their website<\/a>.\"Rescuers<\/a>Rescuers Rush To Revive Comatose Wild Animal Lying In A LandfillHe was overheating and running out of time \ud83e\udd75<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma De Jager and Dr. Debbie English held their breath as the MRI machine clicked around their patient.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9544,60901,85,51109,46,105749,105750,9893,141,2865,9542,386,58457,89405],"class_list":{"0":"post-181632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-dodo","9":"tag-endangered-animals","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illegal-wildlife-trade","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-pangolin","14":"tag-pangolin-rescue","15":"tag-sarah-ashley","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-standard","18":"tag-the-dodo","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-wildlife-rescue","21":"tag-wildlife-trafficking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}