Pangolin at Bukit Panjang

Hanging out in Bukit Panjang
Straits Times 30 Jan 08;

The residents of Saujana Road in Bukit Panjang got a surprise yesterday when a pangolin was found hanging from a branch beside the canal next to Block 501. The animal was less than a metre long and is considered endangered here.

By 10am, it had attracted a small crowd trying to take a closer look or snapping pictures with their mobile phones. Some residents said that it had been sighted as early as 5am. Nobody knew where it had come from.

At about 3pm, National Parks Board officers managed to retrieve the pangolin. 'We transported it to the zoo, where it was inspected and microchipped for identification purposes. It will be released back into the nature reserves,' said Ms Sharon Chan, NParks' assistant director of the Central Nature Reserve.

She added: 'The animal found at the Bukit Panjang housing estate was a healthy, adult male Malayan pangolin.' Also known as the scaly anteater, it has a termite diet and lives in forested areas.

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More thoughts about reactions to this sighting shared on the singaporean attitude to biological conservation blog