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Photo : Paul Crow © KFBG
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Belongs to one of the smallest mammal orders, the Pholidota, with just eight living species. Thought to have arisen on the supercontinent Laurasia, and to share ancestry with the Carnivora.1 Unrelated to other myrmecophagous (ant-and termite-eating) mammals such as anteaters, armadillos, aardvarks and echidnas, which have convergent physical adaptations
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One other species, the Indian Pangolin M. crassicaudata, occurs in China (in west Yunnan) while the Sunda Pangolin
M. javanica is illegally imported. Distinguished from both by its pronounced ear pinna (5-6 mm), and from crassicaudata by a scale-less patch on the ventral side of the tail-tip. Has 15-18 rows of scales round the mid-body (cf. 11-13 in crassicaudata and 17-19 in javanica).2,3
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From Nepal and Myanmar to east China south of the Yangtze; including northern Indochina, Hainan and Taiwan. Like its termite prey, it is absent from colder regions.
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Lives in burrows 10-17 cm wide and 1-5 m deep (shallower in summer); changes burrows after 10-15 days.4,5 Tears open termite and ant nests with its powerful fore claws and extracts the insects on its 25 cm, sticky tongue. Can also climb trees and swim. Defends itself by rolling into a ball or by rapid burrowing. Solitary, mating in autumn and giving birth in spring to (usually) a single young.6
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The Chinese "Chuang Shan Jia (pinyin)" means "penetrate the mountain"; the English "pangolin" is from the Malay pengguling meaning "something that rolls up".
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No recent burrows were found during KFBG surveys in Guangdong, Guangxi or Hainan (though it was still in Hong Kong and Jiangxi). Endangered, both globally and nationally, by steep declines across its range due to hunting – principally to meet the demand in China which is pushing all Asian species toward extinction.7,8 A further potential threat to remaining wild populations is the inappropriate release of non-native pangolin species after confiscation. The confiscated animals should be returned to the range states whenever possible. Also on CITES Appendix II.
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(by John Fellowes and Michael Lau)
References :
| 1 |
Rose KD and Archibald JD, 2005. The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins
and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades. Johns Hopkins University Press. |
| 2 |
Smith AT and Xie Y, 2008. A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, USA. |
| 3 |
Corbet GB and Hill JE, 1992. The Mammals of the Indomalayan Region: A Systematic Review. Oxford University Press, UK. |
| 4 |
Wu S et al., 2004. A preliminary study of the burrowing ecology of Manis pentadactyla. Ying Yong Tai Xue Bao 15(3): 401-407.
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15227988] |
| 5 |
祁伟廉，1998。台湾哺乳动物：野外探险实用大图鉴。大树文化，台北。 |
| 6 |
Sheng HL et al., 1999. The Mammalian of China. China Forestry Publishing House, China |
| 7 |
Duckworth JW et al., 2008. Manis pentadactyla. In IUCN 2008, 2008 Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org, accessed 22 April 2009. |
| 8 |
Wang S and Xie Y, 2004. China Species Red List Vol. 1. Higher Education Press, Beijing. |
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