Chicago's Brookfield Zoo is the only facility in the country to publicly exhibit pangolins, one of the most remarkably, highly-trafficked endangered species on the planet. Despite their endangered status and pressing conservation need, pangolins have traditionally been omitted from zoo collections on the basis of the fact that they've done very poorly in zoo settings, particularly in regards to their diet. It wasn't uncommon for zoo collecting expeditions to opt not to collect pangolins under the assumption that they wouldn't survive.
Even so, confiscated pangolins occasionally were turning up in zoos and gradually more and more facilities began to have success keeping these still-challenging animals. Earlier this year, Brookfield Zoo became the only US facility to celebrate the second-generation birth of a pangolin, the white-bellied tree pangolin, to be specific. "Second-generation" means that the parents themselves were also born under human care. This is tremendously exciting news for the efforts to build a sustainable population of this species under human care, especially if more rescued pangolins are brought into collections. If pangolins can be kept healthy and bred reliably, a vital insurance colony of these endangered creatures can be established.
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