- [Tayla] Do you know what a pangolin is?
- Picture a pineapple.
- Little feet up like little T-Rex's.
- I've been waiting for eight years for this moment.
My name is Tayla.
- My name is Tristan.
- [Tayla] As two fellow rangers.
- [Tristan] We know the value of being a ranger.
- [Narrator] Together, Tristan and Tayla
are seeking out the world's best rangers.
Those special people who can help bring us close
to our truly wild spaces.
For Tristan and Tayla
it's about sharing stories and new ideas.
They are hoping to explore more of the natural world
and to learn how to better protect it by listening to
their fellow rangers, and to their unique points of view.
(dramatic music)
Welcome to Ranger Exchange.
Tristan is a ranger with over eight years of experience
helping people navigate their way in and out
of the most wild spaces of Southern Africa.
His favorite big cat is the leopard.
And he enjoys trying to prove this Tayla,
who completely disagrees.
Tayla is a ranger with over eight years of experience
guiding and teaching others on how to become a ranger.
Her favorite big cat is the lion.
Something her best friend Tristan
completely disagrees with her on.
As rangers, one of the most common questions
Tristan and Tayla are asked while guiding is,
what is a pangolin?
To help them answer this question
they've come to the Phinda Private Game Reserve.
One of the most diverse wild spaces
in the country of South Africa.
Phinda has seven distinct habitats,
grassland, wetland, woodland, and forest,
interspersed with mountain ranges,
rivers, marshes, and plains.
This is the home of a very unique pangolin.
His name is Ramfy, AKA Rockstar.
He was rescued from poachers
by the African Pangolin Working Group,
an organization at the forefront
of trying to save this elusive animal.
A pangolin is a mammal that feeds off
ants and termites exclusively.
It is covered in scales that are made up
of the exact same substance as our fingernails, keratin.
Tristan and Tayla have enlisted the help
of the best person to help them find the pangolin.
His name is Barry and he is a ranger at Phinda
that has spent countless hours caring for Ramfy in the wild.
- My name is Barry.
I am a field habitat manager
for Phinda Private Game Reserve.
- [Narrator] A good ranger will always try
to make their guests feel at home.
(birds chirping)
And that's exactly what Barry did for Tristan and Tayla.
He took them to an ancient forest called the Sand Forest,
where they discussed what it means to be a ranger.
- For me being a ranger, it's all about
sharing my experiences, educating the next generation,
and changing people's mentality through conservation.
- [Tristan] You live in a very, very,
very special part of the world.
- [Barry] It's just my best place to be in.
- Thank you for bringing us here.
- It's quite important that we preserve
these types of unique forests, hey Trist?
(upbeat music)
- The fact that he has gone from
community, waiter, tracking, guiding.
He's just kind of gone through these ranks.
And I think that's the most important thing
about being a ranger,
is that you don't just stop in one place.
You continually grow.
All over the world wildlife is under threat.
And so if somebody's mind can shift from just
a moment with a ranger, that's the power of what we have.
And that's why it's so important for us
and why we're at Ranger Exchange.
We wanna come and speak to people like you
because you inspire us as well as
everybody else out there that watches this.
- We need more people like Barry.
- Yeah, for sure.
- [Narrator] This is Barry's home.
He grew up right next door to Phinda.
He now wants to make sure that other people
from his community have access to these wild spaces.
- One day, we're gonna leave this place.
And who is the next custodian of this place?
I would like to see someone from the local community
becoming a warden, becoming a section ranger,
becoming a conservationist,
becoming a head ecologist of these areas.
- [Narrator] Phinda is cementing its reputation
as a world leader in pangolin conservation.
Somewhere on this breathtaking reserve
is the world's first hand-reared pangolin
that has been reintroduced into the wild
and successfully monitored long-term.
Tristan and Tayla are on a quest to find it.
Tayla has been a ranger for over eight years,
and has spent almost every day in the wild,
and has yet to see a pangolin.
In fact, many rangers go their whole lives
never seen one in the wild, which is mind boggling
when you see the sheer scale of the problem
when it comes to pangolins and poaching.
Driven by a relentless demand for its scales
stemming from the Far East,
the pangolin has sadly become known
as the world's most trafficked mammal.
- We searched high and low.
- Day, after day, after day.
Walking is one of my favorite things to do.
(camera clicking)
- [Narrator] To ensure he finds the pangolin
in the limited time that Tristan and Tayla have
at Phinda, Barry calls in Sharlee,
who is conducting research into these creatures
we know relatively little about.
- Morning Sharlee. - Morning Barry.
- Tristan and I are really fascinated about pangolins.
And I know that you've been dying to share
this particular individual's story with us.
- [Sharlee] He was found on the side of the road.
And he was completely concussed.
He looked like he was thrown off
the back of a moving vehicle.
He had quite bad injuries.
Luckily found by a wildlife veterinarian.
So she got in touch with the African Pangolin Working Group.
And then of course they oversee
the whole rehabilitation process.
- [Narrator] The African Pangolin Working Group
conducts sting operations that ensure
criminals trading in this animal are brought to justice
- Because they come out of the trade,
they're very susceptible to diseases we as humans carry.
And also the type of conditions that they're kept in,
sometimes it's like drums
that local communities will use to brew beer in.
And there's still some leftover beer on the bottom.
There's no place for the pangolin's urine or feces to go.
Sometimes these diseases stay dormant within them
for about six months, even after their release.
So that's part of the reason why
we monitor them so intensively.
- [Narrator] While walking, Barry gave Tristan and Tayla
some insight into his long history
with the pangolin known as Ramfy.
He told them that it formed a bond with him
over the many nights that he spent with it
as it was acclimatizing to its new environment.
- So like he'll be walking, and stopping, and smelling.
You may sometimes hear them sniffing like (sniffs).
And then every now and then you see
a little bit of some diggings here as well,
using his sharp claws.
- [Tayla] It feels like I'm going on my first date.
- [Barry] Just be careful of the thorns as well
as we're walking closer and closer.
- This is why these guys can be so hard to find,
look at dense and thick it is.
- Tayla, this is the moment.
- Yeah, I can see where the grass is moving.
- Literally my heart is sitting in my feet.
- [Barry] We're getting closer.
There! - Oh my gosh.
No freaking ways.
(singing in a foreign language)
- You wouldn't think an animal like a pangolin exists.
- Look at it, how it walks on just two legs.
- [Tristan] Almost looks like a bit of like a T-Rex
the way it kind of.
- It doesn't look like it can
move around in this terrain, how?
- It knows that it can't walk with its back legs downhill,
so it just like curl in a ball and then it just rolls.
So it's an iconic animal.
I love them.
- [Narrator] Tayla asked Sharlee why there are
two tags on the back of the pangolin.
- The tags have actually come a long way
from where we had them originally.
when they go into the ball,
of course the only thing protruding are the two tags,
so that tends to be what gets ripped off by predators.
The antennae even more so, just gets bitten off,
which results in us trying to find them for days.
- That's why two tags work.
So the plan going forward, because of the success
we've already seen here, is to get another
five reserves within this area to also do that.
- [Narrator] Because so little is known about pangolins,
Sharlee and Barry's work is essential.
- I've been waiting for eight years for this moment
to hear from fellow a fellow ranger that is studying them
like sort of firsthand information.
And I honestly didn't think it was going to be a woman.
(Sharlee laughing)
Sharlee it's just you and I amongst the boys.
And normally it's just me amongst the boys.
And I'm sure it's normally you with the boys too.
- That's the exact same thing on my team.
- [Tayla] It was nice to see a woman just doing a great job
at everything that she does.
- I always say to myself, I've been lucky that
I've experienced both now from the guiding point of view
integrating into the conservation point of view.
There are challenging times to have walked this pangolin
in dense vegetated areas in the middle of the night.
But it's all worth it at the end of the day.
You know that you've played a role
in ensuring that the chances of pangolins
coming back to this region is like 80%.
It does brings a smile on your face.
- I think it's really exciting.
South Africa, Africa, we're growing a population
of animals that is hugely important to our ecosystem.
- Oh look, it's coming towards us.
No ways.
That's so cool.
- [Barry] It's quite amazing how sometimes
you can bond with certain animals.
- How cool is it just to watch the way
that pangolin interacted with Barry,
and how Barry interacted with the pangolin.
He's happy to be there.
The way he kind of just guided it around.
And it just was sniffing as if to say,
I haven't seen you in a while, where you been?
- I'm so proud about that pangolin
that it was the first hand-raised pangolin
that had been released back in the wild,
and it's doing fantastic.
So I feel proud being involved from the first stage.
So I was like, wow, you know,
there are times where you feel tears in your eyes.
(gentle music and singing)
- [Narrator] It is truly inconceivable
that this iconic creature is facing extinction.
But not if we can help it.
Organizations like the African Pangolin Working Group
rely on donations from people just like you and I.
If we each send them just a little support
it can turn into massive collective action.
Simply connect with them on social media
and add your voice to the race to save
the world's most trafficked mammal.
- I'm really excited about Barry moving back
into the communities because he has got
such a way with people, and he is gonna be the one
that rounds up the next generation of rangers.
- [Barry] If we can play a role in
ensuring that we do educate the youth of nowadays,
I think there are opportunities,
there are chances that maybe you can twist that mindset,
and then people can see the value of these reserves.
- I think you've got there already.
Part of what Ranger Exchange is, is for us,
is to learn from other rangers, and to come up with a way
as a community of rangers to make a difference.
- [Narrator] Thank you for watching this episode
of Ranger Exchange here on Brave Wilderness.
Don't forget to comment below and share this episode
with your friends, so that together we can raise awareness
and support for the African Pangolin Working Group,
and the vital work that they do.
And remember, be brave, stay wild.
We will see you on the next adventure.
(dramatic music)
(animals calling)