The Kalahari Game Reserve Scientist Studying Climate Change Through the Solitary Pangolin
Photo Credit: Dr. Wendy Panaino (right) at work with a colleague in the Kalahari Desert weighing and measuring a pangolin. TswaluFoundation / Marcus Westberg @marcuswestbergphotography
Skift Take
Wendy Panaino has a unique job — she studies climate change in the Kalahari desert, mostly through her research on the elusive and endangered pangolin. She's had to turn half nocturnal to study and track in its natural habitat, and monitor its adaptation to a changing climate that will increasingly impact how and why we travel.
Dr. Wendy Panaino spends her time in the vast, red-hued Kalahari desert, researching and documenting a mythological animal that few of us will ever see in real life. This animal is the pangolin, a solitary, primarily nocturnal creature that looks like something out of a fairytale. It is covered in scales and can roll up into a ball to protect itself, with a spiky tail that can fend off predators. The animal makes its home in the dry, arid climate of the Kalahari, and is currently critically endangered from poaching, owing to the demand for its meat and scales from Asia.
Dr. Panaino works in the research wing of Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, a privately owned game reserve in the Northern Cape, South Africa. The property hosts guests from all around the world who want to see wildlife but also functions as an ambitious conservation project founded in 2006. From a small seed fund, the Tswalu Foundation has grown into a world leader in the field of environmental research within the southern Kalahari and regularly attracts scientific teams who visit from around the world.
Panaino was seduced by the Kalahari. Having grown up in Johannesburg, she made her way to the bush doing research for her master’s degree, followed by the higher pursuit of a Ph.D. As a scientist studying both animals and climate,
