Đoàn Hồng Hải, born in 1976 (third from right), hands over a pagolin he discovered near his house to Lâm Đồng Province's authorities for further handling. — VNA/VNS Photo

LÂM ĐỒNG — The Public Security of the Lâm Đồng on Tuesday said that officers of Bảo Lâm 1 Commune Police had received a rare and endangered pangolin voluntarily handed over by a local resident.

Đoàn Hồng Hải, born in 1976 and residing in Hamlet 5, Lộc Quang Village, Bảo Lâm 1 Commune, handed over an adult pangolin in good health, measuring 52cm in length and weighing over 5kg, to the commune police a day earlier.

Initial assessments by authorities indicated that the animal is a rare and endangered wild species subject to protection and listed in the Việt Nam Red Data Book.

Hải said he discovered the animal near his house. Aware that it could be a rare and protected species, he decided to inform the local police.

The pangolin is currently being kept at the commune police office while procedures are being completed for its transfer to a wildlife rescue centre for rehabilitation and release back into the wild. 

The adult pangolin is in healthy condition. — VNA/VNS Photo

Since the beginning of this year, residents in Lâm Đồng Province have voluntarily handed over several rare and endangered wild animals classified under Groups IB and IIB to competent authorities, including wildcats (Felis silvestris), pygmy slow lorises (Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus), yellow-cheeked gibbons (Hylobates gabriellae), red-faced monkeys (Ateles paniscus), alligator snapping turtles (Macrochelys temminckii), and palm civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

On January 27, a mountain hawk-eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis) weighing about 2.5kg and classified under Group IIB was found entangled in a net in Sơn Điền Commune and voluntarily handed over by a local resident. Two days later, a wildcat weighing nearly 3kg, also under Group IIB, was handed over by a resident of Da Teh 3 Commune to Cát Tiên National Park. — VNA/VNS