Oscar-winning director reveals the secret lives of pangolins

By Faith Barbara N Ruhinda updated at 1832 EAT on Thursday 24 April 2025

Pangolins have two claims to fame: first, that they are the world’s only scaly mammal, and second, they are one of the most trafficked animals globally

Beyond that, most people know very little about them. But the new Netflix documentary “Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey,” hopes to change that.

The 90-minute film follows the story of a three-month-old ground pangolin Kulu, who is rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, and the slow, intensive process to return him to the wild in South Africa.

“Kulu’s got an incredible personality, he’s very much his own pangolin,” says director Pippa Elrich, best known for the Oscar winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher.”

“He’s incredibly stubborn, determined to go where he wants to go, not that keen to have this strange two-legged creature following him around everywhere he goes,” she adds

The two-legged creature in question is Gareth Thomas, a conservation volunteer who took part in the sting operation that rescued Kulu.

Rehabilitating rescued pangolins is an “incredibly intensive process,” says Elrich: they rarely eat in captivity so they require daily walks, sometimes up to six hours a day, to feed on ants and termites. These daily walks aren’t just for feeding: they are also getting the pangolin ready for the sights, sounds, and smells of its new habitat, and helping it overcome the trauma of captivity.

The rehabilitation team asked (Gareth) if he would take Kulu into the wild and set him free. And I don’t know if he realized that that was going to be the next 18 months of his life,” says Elrich.

The film follows the duo into the wild savanna of Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, a four-hour drive from Johannesburg, immersing the viewer in the world of pangolins.

They’ve got a magical quality; they are a mammal but they’re covered in scales,” says Elrich. “You just don’t want pangolins to be seen only as the world’s most trafficked mammal. You want them to be seen as these joyful, unique, special little creatures.

The ground pangolin, also known as Temminck’s pangolin or the Cape pangolin, is one of eight species found globally, and the most widely distributed of the four species in Africa, with a territory ranging from South Africa to Sudan.

When Kulu arrived at the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, staff called him Gijima, which means “to run” in Zulu, as the severely underweight yet feisty pangolin was constantly trying to run away during his feeding walks. It was during the six-month stint in the savanna that Thomas nicknamed the pangolin Kulu, a variant of the word for “easy” in Zulu, to try to soothe him.

Thomas grew up spending summers in the wilderness in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where he was born; but after school, he became “detached” from nature, instead spending most of his time in the city. “I had a bit of a yearning to be out there again,” he recalls. So in 2019, after picking up wildlife photography, he started volunteering with the African Pangolin Working Group and the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital.

Thomas’ self-shot footage of the pangolins was pivotal to the film, says Elrich: Pangolins are incredibly sensitive creatures, so Elrich says the production team had limited shooting days and relied heavily on Thomas for videos of the rehabilitation process and close-ups of Kulu.

“I realized, he has a very deep bond with these animals, and he understands them,” says Elrich. “He understands how to get this very intimate footage, which almost makes you feel like you’re seeing the world through the eyes of a pangolin.”

Pangolins rescued from the wildlife trade are incredibly difficult to treat and rehabilitate, says Dr. Karin Lourens, the co-founder and head veterinarian of the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital, the first hospital in South Africa to treat pangolins (all pangolins are kept off-site in an undisclosed location).

“Because they haven’t eaten, they don’t have enough protein,” says Lourens, adding that this then causes a build-up of fluid in their lungs. “Then, their pancreas stops working, so they can’t digest food either

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