Rainforest Animals - Malayan Pangolin

Malayan Pangolin: Manis javanica - South-east Asia

IUCN Red List status: Critically endangered

Pangolins, or scaly anteaters, are found in tropical Africa, south and south-east Asia. Pangolins are believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal. 

There are four species in Africa and three in Asia. Although they resemble reptiles, these animals are mammals and their 'scales' are simply mammal hairs, flattened and modified into overlapping plates.

Like the armadillo, the pangolin rolls itself into a tight ball when threatened. The tail is prehensile and it permits the pangolin to hang from the branch of a tree when all four limbs are needed for other purposes such as an attack on a termites nest. Here, the powerful claws rip open the nest while the long sticky tongue mops up the termites. Termites and ants are the chief items of food. Pangolins are completely toothless. Little is known about their ancestry.