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  • To see the relationship between animal and carer in a single frame was very relevant for people out there to actually care.

  • [Wildest animal rescues.]

  • ['Pangolin men' saving the world's most trafficked mammal.]

  • Here in Zimbabwe, we're proud to save the pangolins.

  • Every day, with my friends, we protect the animal.

  • We walk them, we feed them, we protect them like our children.

  • The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal in the world.

  • There are eight species, four in Asia and four in Africa, and more than a million have been illegally hunted and killed in the last decade alone.

  • In Zimbabwe, the Tikki Hywood Trust is devoted to rehabilitating pangolins rescued from poachers.

  • And photographer Adrian Steirn was lucky enough to be granted access to their work.

  • I'd always wanted to document the relationship that these men had with these animals.

  • And I think once I was afforded that opportunity I wanted to come and shoot something very very different.

  • There are two sets of photos.

  • Essentially, there is the reportage photos of what I saw in front of me of how these men interact, and then I wanted to shoot portraits of these men, take very beautiful portraiture that would, I think, hopefully affect people.

  • Would make people sit up and watch and listen and think, "What is that animal? What's happening here?"

  • And that was what I set out to do.

  • It was something that I thought I could make a difference with.

  • When I first saw a pangolin, I first saw the relationship that these men had with these animals, it was beyond extraordinary, a little pre-historic creature that in that moment is completely reliant on that handler.

  • Every single day of the year, these guys go out, ensure that those animals are fed to make their weight so they can be released back into the wild.

  • I was very, very, very fortunate to get the access that I did, and they're so highly traded and they are so endangered that everything they do is covert.

  • Adrian is hoping that his work will bring attention to the most endangered animal that many people have never even heard of.

  • I think if people learn what a pangolin is from these images, then we're moving in the right direction.

  • I hope that people learn to care that little bit more, not just about pangolin, but about our planet.

  • Show these photos to your children.

  • Let them have a look at them.

  • Let them ask questions.

  • Feel good knowing that you have the answers and in doing that, we've educated the next generation.

  • That's all we can do.

  • The pangolin men and the Tikki Hywood Trust are committed to the survival of the species.

  • Wildest animal rescues

To see the relationship between animal and carer in a single frame was very relevant for people out there to actually care.

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