Pangolin _ Who are they?

Pangolins are species of mammal and nurse their young with milk. They are creatures of the night and very timid, shy, slow, and live alone or in pairs. There are eight species (some recourses said only seven species) of pangolins in Asia and Africa. Some of the species of pangolin's are arboreal, which means they live in trees, and some live in a burrow.

At birth, the young pangolins are pale and its scales become to strengthen by the next day. The babies with 6 inches longs body and 12 ounces weights is folded in their mother’s lap or rolled body. After about 4 months of nursed, the small pangolin can begins to eat young termites (about a month old) so the infant can go hunt with their mother by (perhaps) riding on their mother’s tail.

The adult pangolins have a long body, short legs and a low, small pointed head with long tail. Their upper part, from nose to tail is covered with scales, that scab layer is just form of clumps of sticky hairs. Pangolin’s cheeks, chest and belly don’t have scaly, just a little fur-lined hard and its skin of belly is soft and white. They are very good at climbing trees, living and sleep on trees or burrows. While sleep or self-defense, all pangolins are able to roll themselves into a ball; in the lower part of their tails tip with a line fastened to a flake meat back to do a curl very sure and very hard to open. Pangolins have no teeth so they use their amazingly long, muscular, and sticky tongues that are perfect for reaching and lapping up ants, termites and wood destroying insects for meals. Pangolins’ life span is unknown when they live in the wild; some unofficial reports claimed 12 years up to 20 years.

Today, deforestation and hunting pangolin are main reasons for large decrease in the numbers of pangolins around the world.

Source:

http://pangolins.org/

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/poaching_pangolins_an_obscure_creature_faces_uncertain_future/2692/

http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/pangolin