In a daring undercover sting operation in South Africa, a pangolin on the brink of death was rescued from traffickers. The most trafficked mammals in the world, pangolins are prized in Asian restaurants as a delicacy and their scales are used in phony Chinese ‘medicines’. Pangolins are racing towards extinction, and every single life is important for their survival.

The pangolin had been badly injured by her captors and was terribly emaciated. She was rushed to a veterinary center where the team made a shocking discovery – she’s pregnant! But now, both her and her baby’s lives are at risk. We urgently need your help to provide critical medical care to this pregnant pangolin if she is to survive these crucial weeks and keep her baby.

Starved and wounded by her captors, we must urgently raise $6,500 (£4,700) for costly medical treatment and around-the-clock care for this pangolin and her baby to survive!

It is nothing short of miraculous that the stress of her ordeal didn’t cause her pregnancy to fail. Our partner, Umoya Khulula, informed us that the pangolin, named Lily, is in the worst condition they have ever seen. Tied up and stuffed into a backpack for at least 12 days with no food or water, she is critically underweight and her condition is very fragile. Her captors ripped off fistfuls of her protective scales, causing immense pain and leaving her delicate skin bleeding and exposed.

Although Lily is now safely in the hands of a committed team of caregivers in an undisclosed and closely guarded location, she is not out of the woods yet. She needs to be carefully rehydrated on a drip, anesthetized and fed through a tube to receive critical nutrients and monitored 24-hours a day for signs of pneumonia, which is a common but deadly side effect of stress in pangolins.

There are two lives at stake! Please help us rush funds to provide intensive medical treatment and around-the-clock care!

This gentle creature is in desperate need of our help. We have pledged to provide support, but, we need your help to do so. Please help us raise the $6,500 (£4,700) so urgently needed. Your donation will be put to immediate use for intensive medical treatment and around-the-clock care. Each one of these animals is vital to the survival of their species, and we must do everything within our power to ensure that Lily and her baby survive and return to a protected area.

If we do not save every pangolin we can, these rare and unique creatures could become extinct in our lifetime.

We are working towards a long-term solution to the worldwide illegal trade in pangolins for traditional ‘medicine’ and meat. But in the meantime, rescuing individual pangolins from traffickers, rehabilitating and releasing them into protected areas with high-tech tracking equipment, is our best course of action to try to prevent their extinction.

Lily’s captor has been arrested and faces a lengthy prison sentence, but it is now a race against time to save his victim and her unborn baby. Please, can we count on your support?

Rescuing a pangolin from traffickers and securing arrests is a big success, but this is only the start. These criminals have no regard for the welfare of the captured pangolins, who are often close to death when they are confiscated. As a result, it becomes a race against time to assess the animal and start emergency treatment.

In Lily’s case, the team must provide the emergency care she needs, but also be very careful to keep her stress levels down and her treatment as non-invasive as possible for the sake of her pregnancy. Any additional stress could cause her body to abort the baby.

Lily’s medical costs are already skyrocketing, but she and her baby are worth it. Please donate to help us secure their survival.

Lily has a long road to recovery ahead of her, and the team must work harder than ever before to ensure that she is healthy enough to be released and give birth in the wild. She will need to be stabilized as soon as possible so that she can begin her rehabilitation and build up her strength. Thankfully, she has dedicated caregivers who are committed to giving her the best possible care. But they cannot do it without our support. Please, help us save Lily and her baby. They have a chance of survival, but only with our help.