Let's head to China to find animal which can roll into a ball and sometimes resembles a cone - Chinese pangolin.
Chinese pangolin
The mammal most hunted by humans is not the tiger, rhino or elephant but the pangolin. The Chinese pangolin is one of only eight species in the order Pholodia, which means ‘scaled animals’. This animal also goes by the name of scaly anteater because, although not closely related to anteaters, it specializes in eating ants and termites solely. In Mandarin, the peculiar-looking Chinese pangolin’s name ‘Ling-Li’ has the meaning ‘hill carp’ due to its brownish-yellow scales looking like those of Chinese carp, while in Cantonese, ‘animal that digs through mountain’ is the meaning of the name.
The Chinese pangolin is a nocturnal and solitary animal, and despite being highly terrestrial, it can climb trees and swim capably. Occasionally, when walking, it will rise onto its hind legs, with its body more upright, holding its forelegs in the air, and this is also the position used when it attacks a termite nest. The pangolin uses its long claws to excavate a burrow, where it sleeps in the daytime, emerging early during the evening to forage. Having poor vision, the Chinese pangolin relies on its sense of smell to find prey. These animals are not aggressive, and, when threatened, it can roll up into a ball so that only its scaly parts are exposed, thus protecting it from predators.
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. 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.
Little is known about the mating system of Chinese pangolins, as they are very secretive and hard to observe. Mating occurs from late summer to early autumn, when males fight over access to females. This means that the species may exhibit a polygynous mating system. Chinese pangolins spend winter in deep burrows beside a termite nest for a food source. Females bear a single offspring at this time, which is reared during winter in the burrow, coming out with its mother in spring. When outside the burrow, a young pangolin is carried on its mother’s tail. This species is thought to become sexually mature at around one year old.
Distribution
Chinese pangolins live in the east and south of East Asia (Nepal, Bhutan, India, Thailand, Myanmar, China and some others). They are found across a wide range of habitats including coniferous, tropical, evergreen and bamboo forests, agricultural fields and grasslands. It has been recorded up to an elevation of 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
Conservation
Hunting is the primary threat facing the Chinese pangolin, which has been hunted intensively for its meat, considered a delicacy, and its skin, blood and scales, used for traditional Chinese medicine. Disturbance of this species’ habitat does not seem to have had a large impact, as long as its food source of ants and termites is not lost.
The species is considered very rare. The IUCN Red List do not provide the Chinese pangolin total population size. Currently this species is classified as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List and its numbers continue to decrease.
The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group made a proposal in July 2014 to increase awareness, funding, and research for pangolin conservation. Some of the plan's highlights include making protocols to monitor pangolin populations, establishing a consumption index of pangolin products, using DNA analysis to determine variation between and within species, and identifying species strongholds to determine best allocation of resources. Furthermore, the conservation plan aims to increase patrol-based monitoring around stronghold populations, increase awareness and education about the severity of the problem, and, most importantly, implement a demand reduction strategy for pangolin meat and scales.
Another alternative to legislation, proposed by IUCN, includes offering positive incentives, like monetary payments or control over land's resources, to local communities for their involvement in conservation efforts. Other researchers have proposed the importance of finding biological substitutes for endangered species used in traditional medicines. DNA barcoding and analysis could be used to determine what common species are genetically similar enough and produce similar effects as the Chinese pangolin scales. To crack down on poaching, the barcoding technique could also be used for accurate detection of species products being imported and exported.
That's it for today. See you all next time.
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