Chinese pangolin captured in rare images

14 hours ago
Wen Chujun sets up an infrared camera in a patch of woodland on Wutong Mountain in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Provided to China Daily

In early April, a member of a biodiversity survey team of the Luohu bureau of the Ecology and Environment Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, and his fellow team members trekked into the forest of Wutong Mountain, the highest peak in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. In remote and scattered corners of the forest, they set up four cameras with infrared sensors triggered by heat.

Pangolin - Figure 1
Photo China Daily

In September, the team members collected data from the cameras. While sorting and analyzing footage earlier last month, they found images of a wild Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). It marks the first recorded sighting of this rare species in Shenzhen's Luohu district in over 30 years.

"It was a pleasant surprise for us," Huang Qin, technical adviser of the survey team, told China Daily. "It's evidence of the effectiveness of our environmental conservation efforts in the area."

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