Mammals
Pangolin
Manis javanica · also called scaly anteater, Sunda pangolin, Malayan pangolin
The pangolin is one of the most distinctive mammals alive — a slow, shy, scale-covered insect-eater that walks partly on its knuckles and hind legs and curls into an impregnable ball when frightened. It is also, tragically, the most heavily trafficked wild mammal on Earth.
Overview
The Sunda pangolin is one of eight pangolin species, four in Asia and four in Africa. It lives in the forests, plantations, and gardens of Southeast Asia, is mostly nocturnal, and is a capable climber, using its prehensile tail and claws to reach tree-dwelling ants and to sleep in hollows. Other species are strictly ground-dwelling, sheltering in deep burrows. All pangolins are solitary.
The only scaly mammal
A pangolin’s body is sheathed in overlapping plates of keratin, forming a flexible armour over the back, sides, legs, and tail; only the belly and face are soft and furred. The scales grow throughout life and are kept sharp at the edges. Combined with the animal’s ability to roll into a tight ball — the name comes from a Malay word meaning “one who rolls up” — this makes an adult pangolin nearly invulnerable to lions, tigers, and leopards.
An insect specialist
Pangolins eat almost nothing but ants and termites. They find nests by scent, tear them open with heavy foreclaws (walking on the wrists or hind legs to keep the claws sharp), and extract the insects with a tongue longer than their head and body, coated in sticky saliva and attached deep inside the chest. A single pangolin may eat tens of millions of insects a year, making it an important natural controller of ant and termite populations.
Reproduction
Pangolins usually give birth to a single pup (two or three in some African species) after a gestation of around five to seven months. The pup is born with soft, pale scales that harden within days, and it rides on the base of the mother’s tail, tucked inside her body if she curls up, until it is weaned at three to four months.
The trafficking crisis
Every pangolin species is threatened, and the Sunda pangolin is Critically Endangered. The driver is poaching for illegal trade: scales for traditional medicine and meat for high-end consumption, overwhelmingly destined for markets in China and Vietnam. With Asian populations severely depleted, the trade has expanded to Africa, and seizures of many tonnes of scales — each tonne representing roughly 1,000–2,500 dead animals — occur repeatedly. Habitat loss adds further pressure. Because pangolins breed slowly, are hard to keep alive in captivity, and are easy to catch (they simply roll up), stopping the trade is the only route to saving them, through stronger enforcement, demand reduction, and protection of key forest areas.
Pangolin: common questions
Is a pangolin a reptile?
No — it is a mammal, despite the scales. Pangolins are warm-blooded, have hair between their scales, give birth to live young, and nurse them with milk. They are the only living mammals with true scales, which are made of keratin — the same protein as hair, nails, and rhino horn — and form an overlapping armour. Their closest relatives are the carnivores (cats, dogs, bears), not anteaters or armadillos, which they resemble only through convergent evolution.
How does a pangolin eat without teeth?
It has none. A pangolin rips open an ant nest or termite mound with powerful clawed forelegs, then flicks out an extraordinarily long, thin, sticky tongue — rooted near the pelvis rather than in the mouth — to hoover up the insects. It closes its nostrils and ears against attacking insects and has thick eyelids for protection. In the stomach, keratinous spines and swallowed grit grind the food the way a bird's gizzard does.
Why is the pangolin the most trafficked mammal in the world?
Two forms of demand. Its scales are used in traditional medicine in China and Vietnam — despite being plain keratin with no proven medical effect — and its meat is eaten as a luxury and status dish. Because Asian pangolin populations have collapsed, traffickers now ship African pangolins to Asia as well; multi-tonne seizures of scales, representing tens of thousands of animals, are regularly intercepted. All eight species are protected from international commercial trade under CITES.
Can a pangolin defend itself against a lion?
Surprisingly well. When threatened it rolls into a ball with its head tucked under its tail, presenting nothing but a sphere of hard, sharp-edged scales. Lions and leopards have been filmed batting a balled pangolin around for an hour and giving up unable to open it. The scales can also cut, and the pangolin can lash its heavy tail and spray a foul anal-gland secretion. Its armour is highly effective against natural predators — and useless against a person who simply picks it up.