Hair or Pangolin Scales?

Yesterday we got acquainted with pangolins, that are very interesting animals indeed. As a rule, pangolins are also called scaly anteaters. Pangolins are mammals and got their strange name from the Malay word pengguling means “something that is rolling up”.

Pangolins live in tropical regions of Asia and Africa, they have a noticeable appearance, the whole body of a pangolin is covered with scales (and pangolins scales are made of the same protein as makes human hair and fingernails). Pangolins have incredible smell and it helped them to find insects and termite. As a rule, they are not active during the day and prefer hunting at night, but there are some pangolins that can be active while the day time.

In the case of threat pangolins can roll the same like hedgehogs. So, in this case scales act like an armour and an additional means of defense, moreover pangolins can act like a skunk, while emitting a terribly smelling acids from glands. Legs of pangolins are short and have claws. Rather sharp claws. Standard size of pangolins varies from 30 cm to 100 cm. And, it goes without saying, females are smaller than males. Pangolin’s brains is large enough, but they use it in a not very appropriate way: to find food in captivity and other challenging situations. Pangolins adore living in hollows of trees, they can dig tunnels themselves and even swim. And pangolins adore walking at nights, but they return to the same burrow (for many times). Pangolins have no teeth, so they eat due to a special stomach construction and… sand!

But, very often these unusual animals can be under a number of threats:

• pangolins are hunted in many countries;
• in China people do believe that pangolin scales can make swellings smaller and make blood circulation better;
• deforestation;
• illegal trafficking to different countries.