VIDEO | Critically endangered baby pangolin mistakes netizen as its father, scurries away after realising otherwise

A baby Pangolin that had mistaken a netizen for its own parent scurried away after realising its mistake. The rather adorable sight was caught on camera and posted to popular Facebook group Singapore Wildlife Sightings by a netizen, John Lee.

In his post on Thursday (Jun 9), Mr Lee shared a video of the baby Pangolin and wrote: “Critically Endangered baby “Sunda Pangolin” or “Scaly Anteater” unexpectedly appeared r[i]ght in front of me mistaking me as his father. You will notice the smoother scale as well as the smaller size of the young juvenile Pangolin”.

He added that once the “adorable” creature realised that he was not its father, it scurried away in the opposite direction.

In his post, Mr Lee added: “According to the UN World International Body for wildlife, the Sunda Pangolin is listed on the Red List of Threatened Species as Critically Endangered Animal under the auspices of UN’s International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN )”.

He explained that the Sunda Pangolin is a species that is native to Singapore. Even so, he noted that it is the world’s most widely trafficked animal that is threatened by the illegal wildlife trade.

“Singapore offers this rare critical endangered mammal a refuge and a stronghold in a highly urbanised Singapore”, he wrote. However, Mr Lee said that despite it being a highly threatened species, it was found that road kill rather than illegal poachers took the bulk of Sunda Pangolin lives away in Singapore.

In another post to the same Facebook page, a woman who spotted a pair of boarlets was lucky enough to escape without their mother attacking her. In a Facebook post to popular group Singapore Wildlife Sightings, a netizen who went by the name of Tracy Ang wrote: “Joyfully seeing the wild piglets (wild boars) way up close during my lunch @ nature.“

She had found two wild boar piglets, which she said had fallen into the drain “and running anxiously to and fro trying to find way to escape”. Ms Ang was on a bicycle and said that after taking a picture, she cycled off quickly. “A rare moment for the babies to stop and pause from running and lookup, that how I managed to capture this still picture of them”, Ms Ang wrote.

According to Nparks.gov.sg, “Like many other wild animals, wild boars will only attack if they are cornered or if they feel threatened. Female wild boars are very protective of their young and can easily be provoked. Wild boars are strong animals that can run relatively fast. The canines in adult males can inflict serious injuries in case of an attack. Due to their solid body build wild boars are considered to be particularly dangerous when involved in car accidents.”

Netizens who commented on Ms Ang’s post wrote that she was indeed rather lucky to have spotted the boarlets without their mother being too close by.

Woman spots wild boar piglets fallen into drain, takes close up picture and escapes quickly before mother boar attacks her