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Ray Jansen’s alert, dark eyes scan the trees for an early summer migrant bird, then they flick to distant hills where the November sun is already warming up this part of Limpopo. Ray is a scientist but he’s also streetwise; he’s used to sitting in an office yet he’s completely at home in the bush.
He has a no-nonsense attitude, and he needs it, for the odds are stacked against him and his colleagues – a diverse range of researchers, conservationists, wildlife vets and police officers, all of whom play a role in battling the poaching of Temminck’s pangolin (ground pangolin) in South Africa.
At times, Ray actively gets involved in sting operations. This is how it typically plays out: Word gets around that there’s a pangolin for sale.
