Ba Ria – Vung Tau (VNA) – A resident in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on January 15 handed over a Java pangolin, also known as the Sunda pangolin, weighing 2.5kg, to the forest ranger office in Chau Duc- Ba Ria, Ba Ria city.
Le Nhat Hoang, a member of a forest fire prevention team in Dinh mountain area, Tan Hung commune, Ba Ria city, caught the pangolin when he was patrolling the forest on January 14. He then contacted the forest ranger office to hand over the animal, which is listed as a wild, rare and endangered animal species for which hunting, trading and consumption are strictly prohibited in Vietnam.
The Chau Duc – Ba Ria forest ranger force brought the pangolin to their unit to check its health before releasing it back into the wild.
Vietnam is home to two species of pangolin, the Sunda pangolin (Manid javanica) and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), both of which are facing serious threat of extinction. The Sunda pangolin inhabits in the south and the Chinese pangolin in the north./.