From the Field Notes of Colonel Aubrey Fitch-Harrington, FRS

Observations Upon the Fauna of Southern Africa — Volume III (In Preparation)

“The Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) is the world’s most trafficked mammal. Approximately one million have been removed from the wild in the last decade for the traditional medicine trade, primarily in Asia, where the scales are believed to have medicinal properties they do not have. The scales are keratin — the same material as human fingernails. The pangolin rolls into a ball when threatened, the scales forming a complete covering over the soft underside. In this position it can be picked up. This is the behaviour that makes it easy to harvest. The author had been watching a pangolin at the camp perimeter at dusk for three evenings when a vehicle stopped on the track behind him. He put himself between the vehicle and the pangolin. He is recording this in the field notes because the field notes are the record of what happens, and this is what happened.”

He had been watching it for three evenings.

It came to the camp perimeter at dusk, working the termite mounds along the fence line with the specific methodical quality of something that had been doing this circuit for longer than the camp had been here. He had been noting it: Pangolin. Fence perimeter. Dusk. Third consecutive evening.

On the fourth evening a vehicle came down the track behind him and stopped.

He did not look at it. He kept his attention on the pangolin and waited. The vehicle did not move on. The engine was running. Through his peripheral vision he could see it was not a reserve vehicle.

The pangolin continued along the fence line.

The Colonel stood up.

He walked to the fence, which put him between the vehicle on the track and the pangolin in the grass beyond it. He did not make any particular gesture. He did not say anything. He stood there, at the fence, between the vehicle and the pangolin, in the dusk.

The vehicle waited.

Then it drove on.

The Colonel stood at the fence until the pangolin had moved out of sight along the line of termite mounds. Then he returned to his camp chair and picked up his notebook.

He wrote: Please.

He looked at this for some time.

Then he wrote: The pangolin came to the perimeter on the fourth consecutive evening and a vehicle stopped on the track behind the author. The author stood between the vehicle and the pangolin until the vehicle left. This is the complete field note.

The author adds: the pangolin’s scales are keratin. The scales are fingernails. The animal is the world’s most trafficked mammal for fingernails. The author stood at the fence and the vehicle went away. This was the minimum available action and it was available and the author took it. He does not record it as sufficient. He records it as what happened on the fourth evening.

He closed the notebook.