Actually, we had 2. The first was found in a bin at LAX. The bin had tropical fish in it. One of the workers thought it was a rat. USFWS picked it up and brought it to the zoo. We kept it alive for several weeks. After it arrived in LA, the Bronx Zoo received one from one of the NY airports. This one was found walking around the cargo area.
I received a phone call about 1 week after ours arrived and the caller asked about diets for pangolins. Very interesting at the time. The second one arrived with vet papers, but was confiscated by US Customs. It was in fairly good shape and ate the diet, but died of several causes.
A few things to note are that a few of the above collections did breed their pangolins, although I believe survival rates of the offspring were incredibly low - Antwerp bred Indian and Chinese, and seems to have kept quite a wide range of species, so if the captive breeding of pangolins were to be attempted I imagine they might be a likely recipient. Another thing to note is that the multiple holdings of Tree Pangolin in the 1990s represent a group of maybe 5 or 6 animals being repeatedly swapped around the zoos concerned over the course of the first half of the decade.
Wow gerenuk, wow!
What an interesting and comprehensive list! thank you for sharing this with us, where did you get this info and how did you find this info ?
I did some further research on historical pangolin holdings, now this list is for holdings outside of European and North American zoos past and present (mostly past)
Giant pangolin (Manis gigantean):
Baroda Zoo (India)
Abidjan Zoo (Ivory Coast)
White bellied tree pangolin (Manis tricuspid):
Kinshasa Zoo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Nigeria Zoo (Nigeria)
Cape pangolin (Manis temminki):
Pretoria Zoo (South Africa)
Johannesburg Zoo (South Africa)
Bloemfontein Zoo (South Africa)
Khartoum Zoo (Sudan)
Long tailed tree pangolin (Manis tetradactyla):
No records of any in captivity outside of North America or Europe
