Another hotel has come up with another first, and it is a supremely worthy one.
In South Africa, the Lepogo Lodges, a luxury, nonprofit safari camp in the Lapalala Wilderness Reserve 65 miles south of the border with Botswana, has opened the planet’s debut pangolorium.
Now, that’s a made-up word, but the need for a pangolorium is very real.
The family of pangolins, also known as scaly anteaters, has three groups, one in Asia and two in sub-Saharan Africa, and approximately a dozen species.
They are all endangered and among the most trafficked animal on the planet, with the price of their scales reaching silly levels because of the even sillier and utterly unnecessary idea that their ground-up scales provide medicinal benefits.
They are far from the only animal to be treated to such devastating ignorance.
Working with the African Pangolin Working Group, the lodge’s addition that opened on Feb. 15 will offer, in its words, “a comprehensive veterinary unit equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, including a sonar machine to address the unique health challenges faced by pangolins rescued from illegal wildlife trade.”
The APWG states that due to pangolins’ solitary and sensitive nature, they are particularly vulnerable to physical and psychological stress resulting from poaching and trafficking.
“Many [pangolins] enter a state of shock, necessitating specialised care to help their recovery and eventual reintroduction into their natural habitats,” it added.
Lepogo Lodges features two accommodations offerings, Noka Camp and the recently added Melote House, and those staying at either help pangolin initiatives.
Let’s hope this idea increases in scale. (Yes, absolutely terrible, I know, but far, far, far less criminal than poaching pangolin!)
At the beginning of the year, I wrote about other hotels’ and hoteliers’ efforts to safeguard our natural treasures.
Suffice to say, such actions must be encouraged and initiated, for with every piece of the jigsaw that disappears, the less value there is in travel.
I have never seen a pangolin in all my years of searching for birds and animals, but last weekend I did see my first large tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) butterfly.
That was in Orlestone, Kent, England, and — in the weak attempt to connect a hotel to this news — the nearest hotel in CoStar’s database is the Woolpack Inn, which dates to the 16th century, so its website states.
It has three rooms called Josephine, Niddy and Noddy. It would be interesting to know for what or whom they were named. The pub looks to be a fine example of ancient inn in the Kentish countryside, and it is linked to the church by a secret tunnel used by smugglers, the site being only 10 miles or so from the English Channel.
Maybe 400 years ago it was closer than that, as the coast around there can get silted up and dramatically altered by severe storms.
The inn/pub must have had many evenings of hospitality, even if some of the earlier ones might not have been 100% legal.
The butterfly’s presence is an indication that given the right environment, animals can return.
This species was present and breeding in the U.K. until the 1950s, but it then was lost to the country.
Now it has a tiny foothold and can be seen as adults on sunny days in March (yes, there are few such days in this month in England) and when they next emerge as adults in July. They are strong flyers, quite often high above the ground and are difficult to see given the very short amount of time they are on the wing.
The large tortoiseshell also has the distinction of the only butterfly species to be mentioned by name in one of the James Bond movies, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” when Bond, on a visit to the home of chief spy M, remarks on M’s passion for butterflies, or lepidoptery.
Looking at a specimen being collated by M, Bond says “Very small, this Nymphalis polychloris!” to which M replied, “007, do you know anything about lepidopterans?”
A lifelong birder, I know that scene, due to knowing also that the character Bond derived his name directly from that of an American birder/ornithologist called James Bond, who was living in Jamaica and was known to the James Bond novels’ creator Ian Fleming, who also lived on the West Indian island.
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