Ecology and conservation of pangolin using stable isotope forensics

The giant ground pangolin (Smutsia gigantea - Illiger, 1815) of the African lowland rainforest and savanna gallery forests is one of the world's least studied animals. It is the largest of the pangolin species, with a mass of around 33 kg, and in common with the other species is myrmecophagous, providing an important ecosystem service as a regulator of social insect populations. Our current knowledge of pangolins is hampered by their predominantly nocturnal lifestyle, the fact they use a complex system of deep inaccessible burrows, and further, their jeopardy by poaching and trafficking. We know little about their movements and population sizes, and our lack of knowledge about their ecology hinders our efforts to protect them. This PhD position will exploit technical advances in stable isotope analysis to provide long-sought data on the ecology and life history of giant pangolins.
Pangolins are the only mammals with overlapping keratinous scales covering the body as dermal armour. The steep rise in demand for harvested pangolin scales is driven by their use in traditional medicines in Asia and to some extent in Africa. Now that the IUCN lists all four Asian pangolin species as endangered or critically endangered, intensive poaching has increased in the four vulnerable and decreasing African species, with 46.8 tonnes of scales being confiscated in the first half of 2019. Given the large size and slow reproductive rate of S. gigantea, this species seems particularly susceptible to poaching pressure. The intensification of this threat to pangolins underlines the urgency for developing analytic approaches that can help antipoaching efforts as well as clarify pangolin ecology.
This PhD position aims to develop a groundbreaking method that would provide governments with rapid and accurate tools of habitat conservation, and improve wildlife crime forensic science in general. The research promises to facilitate the identification of the geographic origin of confiscated scales, along with greater knowledge of habitat resource preferences and life history traits for S. gigantea, all of which are essential for the conservation management of this species.
The project has two main objectives, both driven by stable isotope analysis (SIA): 1.) to address knowledge gaps in the ecology of S. gigantea, and 2.) to exploit the potential of using stable isotope methods to forensically identify the geographic origin of confiscated pangolin scales.
The student will work with ANPN's Wildlife Capture Unit (WCU) to capture and GPS-tag pangolins from Gabonese parks. This team led by Dr. Lehmann is composed by very experienced ecoguards, master trackers, a field biologist and a wildlife veterinarian. Pangolins will be actively tracked in the field, leaving no trails behind, without disturbing their natural habitats. As all the field sites are in very remote locations, we do not envision any negative impacts on local communities. The Wildlife Capture Unit has developed species-specific safe and field-friendly anaesthetic protocols to sedate individual species, including giant pangolin. The immobilized individual is closely monitored during the entire duration of the operation. During capture, all individuals will be measured, weighed, sexed, and samples for SIA will be collected. In addition, to bolster stable isotope modelling, prey items and environmental (plant, water) samples will be collected from within individual's home ranges.
After tagging, GPS spatial data can clarify life expectancy, territoriality and home-range size, daily path lengths, distance travelled, social interactions and reproductive behaviours. Furthermore, SIA of keratinous scales provides dietary and/or environmental information about the animal at the time of keratin deposition. Conventional methods of dietary analysis, e.g. the analysis of stomach contents, are at best invasive methods and offer only a "snapshot" of what an animal is eating at one time. SIA allows the quant