Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world, yet many people are completely unaware of their existence. Meet the little armoured mammals facing a big problem
Words Victoria Williams
GROUND /CAPE PANGOLIN
Smutsia temminckii
Class Mammalia
Territory Central, eastern and southern Africa
Diet Ants and termites
Lifespan 15–20 years in captivity
Adult weight 7–18kg (15.4–39.7Ib)
Conservation Status
VULNERABLE
Opening a shipping container, Chinese customs officers are faced with piles of grain sacks. Suspecting that the contents aren’t what they first seem to be, they slash open a sack to reveal parts of the most trafficked animal in the world. It’s not ivory or rhino horn: the whole shipping container is full of pangolin scales.
Pangolins – eight species of scaly mammal from Asia and Africa – are thought to make up 20 per cent of all illegal wildlife trade, but many people have never heard of them. They’re sometimes mistaken for armadillos, but, while bony plates protect armadillos, pangolins are the only mammals with keratinised scales.
Both groups are prolific diggers and curl up to avoid predators (well, the three-banded armadillo does) but despite their superficial similarities, armadillos are more closely related to anteaters and sloths while the pangolin’s nearest living relatives are the carnivores.
Using the long claws on their front feet, most of these shy animals dig burrows or claw their way into tree hollows during the day. Come nightfall they emerge to search for insects; using their strong sense of smell, they sniff out ant and termite nests before breaking into them and hoovering up the residents with their sticky tongues. The visible part of the pangolin’s tongue is astonishingly long to help it reach the insects, but the muscle doesn’t end at the top of the throat like ours does; its root is attached to bone at the bottom of the ribcage.
Pangolins aren’t very social animals. They live solitary lives for most of the year, only seeking each other out to mate. In a break from their usual quiet nature, males will use their tails like clubs if conflict arises over access to a breeding female. Young are born pale and soft and remain in the burrow with their mother while their scales harden and darken. At a month old a young pangolin is ready to experience life above ground, clinging to the female as she snuffles around. A few months later it’s ready to start eating insects and moving around by itself, but it will remain with its mother for another 18 months until it reaches maturity and must leave home.
The name ‘pangolin’ comes from the Malay word penggulung, meaning ‘one who rolls up’. It refers to the animal’s main form of defence – rolling its body into a ball like a woodlouse and using its tough scales as a shield. With all their vulnerable parts tucked away, pangolins can keep themselves safe from the sh
