A pangolin found its way on to a four-lane highway this afternoon causing traffic to slow after the animal sought refuge on the inside of a wheel of a car.
Police were alerted around lunchtime when a young member of the super-endangered species was spotted meandering in the middle of the busy junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and 6 on the edge of Bishan Park.
Three cars stopped, and drivers got out of their vehicles to try to catch the animal while traffic streamed by.
Police cordoned off one and later a second lane of the road after animal welfare charity ACRES — which had received three calls about the Pangolin from concerned members of the public — arrived on the scene to assist with the rescue effort.
The pangolin evaded capture before engaging its trademark defence mechanism, rolling up into a tight ball, which it did on the inside of a wheel of a Toyota belonging to a man who had stopped to help.
The foot-long Pangolin cub had a strong grip on the rear-left wheel, and could only be moved after the wheel itself was detached from the car.
The rescue team, ACRES volunteers Suk Teng Chin and Travis Low, used a towel to cover the face of the animal to calm it down, and manoeuvred it into a large container. The rescue operation took about 30 minutes.
The Pangolin is to be microchipped as part of the conservation effort before getting released somewhere he can roam randomly about as far as possible from the Saturday traffic.
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