A Weird and Fascinating Creature: the Pangolin
Who is also critically endangered.
When you see pictures of scaly pangolins, you might think of lizards or reptiles or even dinosaurs. However, the pangolin is a mammal! Actually, the world’s ONLY scaly mammal. Although they’re sometimes called “scaly anteaters” because they eat ants and termites and have extremely long tongues similar to giant anteaters, they’re actually more closely related to dogs and cats; their DNA is similar. Their babies are called pangopups, are only six inches long and weigh only twelve ounces when they’re born.
Because pangolins are solitary and rather shy animals, we don’t really know all that much about them. Also, they’re predominantly nocturnal – making it harder for ethologists and other scientists who study animal behavior to collect data. What do they feel? What kind of relationships do they have? How do they interact? I couldn’t really find out much more about them besides simple, dry facts. And yet, they deserve that we keep them in our hearts and minds; more about that further down.
The female pangolin gives birth to one or two offspring; the Asian species (there are four of them) sometimes even has three babies. They nurse until they are about four months old; the young travel on the back of their mother (the male parent doesn’t seem to be involved with the upbringing). After about six months the babies are old enough to be independent and go their own ways.
There are eight pangolin species, four of which live in the tropical and subtropical regions of southern Asia (India, Southern China, and Southeast Asia), and four live in Africa: one species, Temminck’s ground pangolins, live in southern Africa, the other three species are found in the forests of Central and West Africa.
How old do they get? The many websites that share information about these animals have conflicting answers. Some say that pangolins in the wild can live up to 20 years, while those in captivity don’t get much older than 13 years. Other websites claim that nobody really knows how old they get, because they’re not easily observed. And that they can’t be bred in captivity – they easily get sick, need a large area to roam around in, and their diet – ants, termites, and insects – is hard to supply as well. They consume 4.9 to 7.1 ounces of insects each day. A single pangolin can eat up to 70 million insects in a year! Because they lack teeth, they swallow small stones to help digest their prey; and here’s another interesting fact about their eating habits: they close their ears and nostrils to keep out insects while eating. Clever, isn't it.
And we do know that they've been on Earth for roughly 60 or 80 million years!
The name Pangolin comes from a Malay word pengguling, meaning "one that rolls up" – which refers to the way the creatures protect themselves. When they are threatened or in danger, they roll up, and the hard, overlapping scales which are made of keratin (like our fingernails, or the horn of a rhinoceros) make it almost impossible for any hostile animal to harm or hurt the pangolin.
Unfortunately, the scales are no protection from humans. Poachers and animal traffickers have brought these gentle, shy animals to the brink of extinction. Up to 2.7 million pangolins are poached every year, accounting for about 20% of all illegal wildlife trade. The criminals go after the animals’ scales and their meat. Traditional Chinese medicine ascribes a number of bogus healing properties to the scales: they are supposed to cure arthritis, promote circulation, or dissolve blood clots. I’m a big fan of acupuncture and have successfully taken Chinese herbs myself, but keratin? The stuff of fingernails and hair? And even if these scales could indeed cure all sorts of diseases, they belong to the pangolins and may NOT be taken. The idea that we humans are the “crown of creation” and may use and abuse all other creatures with impunity is so wrong and destructive.
In some Asian countries, China and Vietnam for example, pangolin meat is considered to be a delicacy which is offered at fancy restaurants for exorbitant prices. In Africa as well, hunters and poachers catch and kill the poor animals both for their meat and for their scales. Traditional medicine uses the scales to cure a wide range of diseases, from back pain to nose bleeds to arthritis and ear infections, and even the meat is supposed to have medicinal value: in Sierra Leone, for example, it is used to heal rheumatism, high blood pressure, stomach disorders, and more.1 In addition, a long list of superstitious beliefs uses various body parts of pangolins to secure financial success, to protect from witchcraft, to cure infertility in women, and to make somebody fall in love with you. The result from all this is that pangolins are the most trafficked mammals in the world. And that the four Asian species are listed as critically endangered, while the four African species are listed as vulnerable. Vulnerable to extinction.
In 2020, China announced that it upgraded pangolins to the highest level of protection for wild animals and that they had been removed from the official list of traditional Chinese medicines. Conservation groups strongly applauded this move; however, it’s not clear whether patent medicines which contain SOME pangolin ingredient have been removed as well. If that’s not the case, the legal commercial use of pangolins will continue.
Sir David Attenborough chose the sunda pangolin, one of the critically endangered Asian species, to be part of his personal Ark when he named ten species that are threatened with extinction and that he would like to save.
“It is one of the most endearing animals I have ever met,” said Sir David. “Huge numbers of them are illegally exported, mainly to China. In the last 15 years, over half of the population of sunda pangolins have disappeared.”
When he was filming in Asia, he rescued one from the cooking pot.2
I believe the more people know about pangolins, the more they would be willing to help save them from extinction. Please keep them in your heart.
fascinating creatures that remind me of armadillos. thanks
How'd ya take them 'er takin' 'em than thar piney - cones to do poses like that ?
Seriously, clever work.