![]() A single pangolin can sport up to around 1,000 individually fitting scale and when they roll into a ball they present a predator with a set of armor that any medieval knight would have envied. Made of keratin, like human fingernails and rhino horn, the scales become strong and sharp as pangolins age, providing them with tough protection against a forest full of predators. Pangolins are the only mammal in the world with proper scales Jeremy Hance of wrote: “For millions of years the pangolin has depended on its scales to keep it safe. The pangolin’s claws and prehensile tail make it both a powerful burrower and agile tree climber. They are used mainlt to dig out holes in ant and termite nests. On each of forelegs are three long claws (extensions of three of five toes). When it is rolled into a ball none of the soft areas are exposed. On Chinese pangolins and other species the snout, cheeks, throat and inner limbs are also not covered by scales. The pangolin’s underside is naked except for a few sparse hairs. The armor serves as camouflage as well as proving protection. Pangolins are covered in armor made up of horny plates, which overlap like shingles in a roof. Its powerful stomach muscles “chew” its food. The animal has no teeth and its lower jaw is just slivers of bone. Even average size pangolins have a very long tongue that can extend 40 centimeters beyond its mouth, allowing them to reach deep into ant and termite nests. Pangolins have short legs, a long snout and a thick prehensile tail. Pangolins Wikipedia article Wikipedia African Wildlife Foundation awf.org Theatened Pangolin Video YouTube Pangolin Characteristics See Separate Article PANGOLINS, CHINESE MEDICINE AND THE ILLEGAL ANIMAL TRADE Between 19, 175,000 pangolin hides were imported into the United States, The practice has since been discontinued. Their skins are used in making shoes and boots. Pangolin meat is a prized delicacy and pangolin scales are greatly sought after for traditional medicines. Its body and head is 50 to 60 centimeters long. The Cape pangolin of eastern and southern Africa weighs 15 to 48 kilograms. It pale, yellowish scales are up to five centimeters across. Its body and head is 54 to 80 centimeters long. The Chinese pangolin of east and south Asia weighs two to seven kilograms. ![]() It spends its time entirely on the ground. ![]() The most common species, the Cape pangolin, reaches lengths of 110 centimeters with about half of that being tail. 85-centimeter-long pound African species. They range in size from two kilogram tree-dwellers to a 30-kilogram. There are seven species of pangolins dispersed but uncommon over southern China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. Several species of them spend their lives in trees and clamber about with the aid of a long grasping tail. The pangolins are so specialized that they can now eat nothing but ants and termites for their jaws have lost all their teeth and little more tham a curving tube housing a very long tongue. David Attenborough wrote: they “protect themselves with armor” made up of “roughly triangular horney plates that overlap one another like the scale son a fir cone. Pangolins are similar in shape to anteaters and are armored like armadillos. Little studied, they are natural pest controllers, gobbling up ants and termites. It lives in both rain forests and savannah grasslands. Found in Africa and Asia, it has a large muscular tail and is covered with armor-like overlapping scales that protect it when it is threatened and it forms an impenetrable armored ball. The pangolin is one of the world's strangest-looking wild animals.
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