18th February: World Pangolin Day

The third Saturday in February is World Pangolin Day. Here are ten things you might not know about pangolins.

1. Pangolins are mammals of the order Pholidota. They are unique among mammals in that they are covered with keratin scales (that's the same stuff our fingernails are made from). The scales are very sharp - when threatened the pangolin rolls into a ball which deters most predators. The scales comprise about 20% of their total body weight.
2. They can also emit a foul smelling substance from glands around their anus, rather like a skunk.
3. The name "pangolin" comes from the Malay word "pengguling", meaning "something that rolls up". As for a collective noun, many sources said there wasn't one, as they are solitary creatures which only get together to mate. Yet I found a couple of other sources which suggested the word for a group of pangolins was a predicament, sliding scale or prang.
4. There are eight species of pangolin alive on the planet today, although some are endangered. Four species live in Africa and four in Asia. Some species live in burrows, others in hollow trees. Their claws are said to be strong enough to dig through concrete.
5. They were once thought to be related to other anteaters, armadillos and Sloths, but more recently it has been concluded that they are more closely related to hyenas, Bears and Wolves.
6. An alternative name for these creatures is the scaly anteater. They do, in fact, eat ants, or Termites. They can be fussy eaters and only eat one species of insect, even when several are available. They have no teeth. They catch their prey with long tongues covered in saliva. Inevitably, they ingest small stones as well, but these help grind up the ants in their stomachs. They also have keratinous spines inside their stomachs to help this process. A Pangolin may eat 70 million ants a year. Pangolins can voluntarily constrict their ears and nostrils to keep insects out while they are feeding.
7. A pangolin’s tongue can be longer than its body. Large pangolins can extend their tongues as much as 40 centimetres (16 in).
8. The largest pangolin ever recorded weighed in at 33 kilograms (72.6 pounds).
9. Humans are the biggest danger to a pangolin. Humans aren't flummoxed, as a lion would be, by a rolled up pangolin. They simply put on protective gloves and scoop them up. They are hunted for their meat and also the scales, which many people mistakenly believe have medicinal properties.
10. In 2012 Sir David Attenborough chose the Sunda pangolin, a species distributed throughout South East Asia, as one of his ten favourite species he would save from extinction.

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