In light of World Pangolin Day, which is celebrated on the third Saturday in February, Noel McCully has sculptured a large fallen tree which had damaged the fence of Queen’s Park High School to raise awareness about the world’s most trafficked mammal.
The tree had fallen on the school grounds during a severe winter storm about three years ago, causing extensive damage to the fence and ground.After getting the school’s consent, McCully set about carving a mother and baby pangolin perched on its back. She started carving started in October last year and it took her between 60-90 hours to complete the work in December.
The novice self-taught chainsaw carver who lives a few metres from the school, took on the daunting task after her interest in the endangered species reached new heights last year. She started chainsaw carving last year aided by online videos.
She became more aware of the trafficking of the pangolin during the Covid-19 lockdown.“I did a bit of reading and discovered it was the most trafficked mammal in the world so I thought let me highlight that because it is at a school and people need to know, because I didn’t know what a pangolin looked like until I saw the images,” said McCully.
School Administrator, Ulanda Manuel said this was also the first time a resident from the community had interacted with her and the school in the almost 18 years of working there. “In the afternoons when I worked late she used to come in. The kids used to play on the tree and when she approached us, I was quite keen on the idea and thought let’s do something with this,” concluded Manuel.
