Page 78 - World of Animals - Issue #29

Conserving the pangolin

Scaly species worth saving

There are eight species of pangolin, all of which are vulnerable

Pangolins are the world’s only scaly chest cavity when resting. They use this

mammals, and are unusual in that they nifty tool to quickly and efficiently clean
have no teeth and grind their food with out ant and termite nests.
keratin spikes in their stomachs. There are In Chinese folklore, pangolins are said
eight species of pangolin: four species in to be special, with the ability to travel
Asia, and four in Africa. There is a genetic around the world undetected using a
difference between Asian and African network of tunnels. The Cantonese word
pangolins, but it’s easy to tell them apart for pangolin translates as ‘the animal that
visually by the presence of bristles between digs through the mountains’. It’s now more
the scales, found only on Asian pangolins. important than ever to find a way to save

Regardless of where they are from, all the pangolin. On the whole, we know very
pangolins bumble around on their hind little about these nocturnal and secretive
legs, hunched over, tucking their fore animals. They are mysterious and difficult

claws underneath their body. They have to study in the wild; we don’t even know
amazingly sticky tongues, longer than their their life span. But, we do know they are
combined head and body length, which extremely difficult to care for in captivity,

are attached to their pelvis and held in the so conserving them in the wild is vital.

“In Chinese folklore, pangolins are said to
travel around the world undetected using

a network of underground tunnels”

P a ngo l i n s p ec i e s
Pangolin species
The eight species of pangolin are divided
equally between Asia and Africa

g
a
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g
l
in
in
o
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l
p
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ine
Chinese pangolin
C C
Chinese pangolin
e
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ine
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an
Malayan pangolin
p
an
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n
Malayan pangolin
Ma
Ma l l a y an p an g o l l i i n
C a p e p a n g oli n Philippine pangolin
Cape pangolin
Philippine pangolin
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