Mandai Wildlife Group is creating a sperm bank for endangered pangolins to preserve their genetic diversity:
Scientists in Singapore have decided to collect and freeze sperm from pangolins to use in future artificial insemination programs for the threatened mammals should the need arise. The eight known species of pangolins are collectively the world’s most trafficked mammal. The Sunda pangolin has seen its population decline by over 50% in the last 15 years. All pangolin species are listed as threatened, and scientists say they hope to create a reservoir of genetic material before arriving at a ‘too little, too late’ scenario. While it has successfully extracted and stored sperm from 38 pangolins, the Singapore lab hasn’t collected egg cells from female pangolins because the procedure is much more invasive….
When a pangolin is brought to the wildlife hospital, the team carries out a full health check, including blood work and ultrasound, under general anesthesia. For males, they also take semen…
The team remove the semen manually or by electroejaculation. During the electroejaculation process, a small device is inserted into the pangolin’s rectum and positioned near the prostate gland. Electrical pulses then stimulate the gland and cause ejaculation. The process is commonly used in domesticated animals and has also been used to bank sperm from men with spinal cord injuries and other health conditions.
Once staff have retrieved semen from the pangolin, they have a matter of minutes to complete the biobanking procedure as the semen is sensitive to temperature. Fortunately for the wildlife hospital, its laboratory and biobank are under the same roof.
Giant pangolins have been spotted in Senegal after being absent from that country for a quarter century.
