Happy Wednesday! Time for Wildlife Wednesday. This week is all about the pangolin!
Pangolins are an animal I really love. They are also one of the animals that helped inspire this series of blog posts. So many people I've talked to about pangolins had never heard of these amazing animals before! So let's learn a bit more about this amazing creature!
And of course there has to be a Suqshies version, so meet Gillian the Pangolin! So let's learn a bit more about this amazing creature!
There are 8 species of pangolins. They vary in size from 3.5 lbs to 73 lbs.
The tree pangolin has a prehensile tail. All of the pictures today are pictures of a tree pangolin.
Asian pangolins have thick bristles between their scales, African pangolins do not have these bristles.
Their scales are made of keratin, the same substance that makes up your fingernails and hair.
Their scales make up 20% of their body weight.
Pangolins curl into a ball to defend themselves from threats, protecting the parts of their bodies not covered in scales.
Pangolins can not see well. They rely mostly on their sense of smell.
It is estimated than an adult pangolin can eat over 70 million insects in a year.
Pangolins do not have teeth. They swallow insects whole. They grind them up with their stomach muscles and the small stones and bits of sand they swallow while eating insects.
Baby pangolins ride on the base of their mother's tail.
Pangolins balance on the outside edges of their front feet, tucking their claws underneath when they walk. They sometimes rise on their hind limbs.
In some regions and cultures pangolins are hunted because it is believed their scales have healing properties. This is not true. Their scales have as much healing property as your own fingernails (none at all!) as they are made of the same substance.
