Chinese Pangolin

Manis pentadactyla

Chinese Pangolin

“ Since 2000, it is estimated that up to one million pangolins have been taken from the wild for illegal trade globally. ”

– IUCN SSC Pangolin Group

Scientific Taxonomy & Character Information

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Clade: Synapsida

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pholidota

Family: Manidae

Genus: Manis

Subgenus: Manis

Species: Manis pentadactyla

Subspecies: Manis pentadactyla pentadactyla

Descendant: manidae

Named by: Carl Linnaeus

Year Published: 1758

Size: 40–58 cm (16–23 in) long in length; including its 25–38 cm (9.8–15.0 in). to tail; 2 to 7 kilograms (4.4 to 15.4 lb) in weight

Lifespan: 4 to 15+ years

Type: 

Title: 

Pantheon: 

Time Period: Pleistocene - Holocene

Alignment: Shy

Threat Level: ★★

Diet: Insectivors

Elements: n/a

Inflicts: n/a

Weaknesses: Water, leaf, electric, light, time, sound

Casualties: ???

Based On: itself

Conservation Status: 

The Chinese pangolin, Taiwanese Pangolin, or Formosan Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is a pangolin native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia and southern China.

Etymology

The name "pangolin" comes from the Malay word pengguling (ڤڠݢوليڠ⁩), meaning "one who rolls up," from guling or giling, "to roll"; it was used for the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica). However, the modern name is Tenggiling (تڠݢيليڠ). In Javanese, it is terenggiling (ꦠꦺꦫꦺꦔꦒꦶꦭꦶꦔ꧀), and in the Philippine languages, it is goling (ᜄᜓᜎᜒᜈ᜔), tanggiling (ᜆᜅ᜔ᜄᜒᜎᜒᜅ᜔), or balintong (ᜊᜎᜒᜆᜓᜅ᜔; with the same meaning).

Physical Appearance

The Chinese pangolin resembles an anteater with scales. Usually, its scales are blue-gray in color. Its tail measures approximately 25–38 cm (9.8–15.0 in), while its head and body size approximately 40–58 cm (16–23 in). The weight of an adult Chinese pangolin ranges from 2 to 7 kg (4.4 to 15.4 lb). Its eighteen rows of overlapping scales and hair are an uncommon combination in mammals. Its head is short and pointed, and its mouth is small and narrow. As it gets older, its claws get longer. One youngster is born to the female at a time.


A baby pangolin's length is approximately 45 cm (18 in), and it weighs approximately 93 g (3.3 oz). When the weather warms up in April and May, the Chinese pangolin breeds. The young have soft scales at birth, but after two days, they harden. On its first day of life, the juvenile pangolin can walk, but its mother carries it on her back or tail. The mother quickly folds her infant onto her belly with the assistance of her tail if she senses danger. It has been noted that male pangolins let the female and young share their burrow.

Abilities

The pangolin's hard scales work as a protective cover from predators, and when it feels threatened, it curls into a ball ("volvation").

Ecology

The Chinese pangolin feeds mainly on insects, particularly termites and ants. It digs into ant nests and termite mounds with its large fore claws and extracts insects with its long, sticky tongue. The Chinese pangolin digs long burrows in the ground, which they use to sleep and hunt termites.


Gut contents of a wild juvenile individual killed by dogs in Hong Kong on November 24, 2013 included only 25,803 ants and 812 termites, representing 6 genera and 9 species. Ants represented the main food source in terms of species richness (8 species), abundance (97%), and biomass (98%), the most abundant species being Camponotus nicobarensis, Polyrhachis tyrannica, and Crematogaster dohrni. The invasive yellow crazy ant was also present in the stomach contents, a species commonly found near human settlements and at forest edges rather than in undisturbed forest, suggesting this individual foraged at forest margins, unlike the disturbance-avoiding behavior observed within heavily hunted rural populations.


Due to its specific diet, it can become arduous to provide the appropriate food for captive animals. Since the 1970s "pangolins are now almost unknown to visitors and are exhibited infrequently in zoos", and have "historically been difficult to maintain, with most captive animals dying within a short period after capture". When in their natural habitat, this species lives "on a diet of ants, termites, and various other invertebrates including bee larvae, flies, worms, earthworms, and crickets". After carefully creating new, more sustainable recipes in zoos, some of the ingredients used have included "egg, meat (ground beef, horse, canned feline diet), evaporated milk products, milk powder, fish protein, orchid leaves, commercial chows, psyllium seed, carrots, yeast, multivitamins, and insects (mixtures of silkworm larvae, earth, ants, termites, meal worms, or crickets)".


A number of zoos that have kept pangolins under observation have found that the animals died most commonly after a few years, without breeding successfully. Researchers claim this outcome is correlated to the "poor acceptance of captive diets and digestive problems." The Chinese pangolin is considered to be high risk in terms of extinction.

Behavior

You scare pangolins more than they scare you. These timid animals will not harm a human. In order to defend themselves, they curl into a tight sphere and use their sharp scales to ward off predators.

Distribution and Habitat

The Chinese pangolin is native to southern Nepal, northeastern India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, northern Indochina, southern China, including the island of Hainan, and most of Taiwan. It has been recorded up to an elevation of 3,000 m (9,800 ft).


It formerly ranged throughout provinces south of the Yangtze River, as well as north of the Yangtze River in southern Sichuan, northeast Chongqing, northwest Hubei, and southwest Henan Provinces.


The only pangolin species was adapted to snowy and cold climates like China and Taiwan due to the hairs between the keratin scales.


Tamed

Coming soon

Lore

Thylacine was one of the largest known carnivorous marsupials (the largest in the world prior to its extinction), evolving about 2 million years ago. The last known live animal was captured in Tasmania in 1930. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped lower back) or the Tasmanian wolf (because of its canid-like characteristics).

Known Individuals

Gallery

Foreign Languages

Trivia