Manis giganteagiant pangolin

Ge­o­graphic Range

Manis gi­gan­tea is lo­cated in the west­ern to cen­tral re­gions of Sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa. Their west­ern range in­cludes Sene­gal along the coast­line all to way to cen­tral Gaban and An­gola and their cen­tral range in­cludes De­mo­c­ra­tic Re­pub­lic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. (Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Me­di­an­nikov, et al., 2012)

Habi­tat

Giant pan­golins are found in forests and sa­van­nas and seek shel­ter under piles of de­bris and/or bur­rows. The bur­rows can be sev­eral me­ters deep and are made ei­ther by them­selves using their pow­er­ful fore­limbs or they in­habit aban­doned bur­rows made by an­other an­i­mal. They are re­stricted to these re­gions in Sub-Sa­ha­ran African be­cause of the con­stant, hab­it­able en­vi­ron­ment for ants and ter­mites, their only food source that they de­pend on all year round. (Chal­len­der and Hy­wood, 2012; Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The largest and heav­i­est of all pan­golins, M. gi­gan­tea weighs 30.0-35.0 kg. It has an elon­gated body with a thick tail cov­ered with ker­a­tinized epi­der­mal cells in the form of over­lap­ping scales. Their av­er­age body length is 152.4 cm and have a quadrupedal gait. They use their strong heavy fore­limbs to dig bur­rows and nests for shel­ter and food. In re­sponse to their food habits their head is long, nar­row, ex­ter­nal pin­nae are ab­sent, thick heavy eye­lids pro­tect the eyes and they have no teeth. Since they are tooth­less, the mus­cles that aid in chew­ing and bit­ing, the mas­seter and tem­po­ralis, are ab­sent. When pro­truded, the max­i­mum length of the tongue is 70 cm and when it is re­tracted it lays ven­tral to the tho­rax and tra­chea and stretches all the way down to the ab­domen. Due to the in­cred­i­ble length of the tongue, when re­tracted, a por­tion of the tongue is folded into the cer­vi­cal re­gion, cre­at­ing a bulge on the out­side of the neck. The tongue is cov­ered with sticky saliva se­creted by a large sub­mandibu­lar gland to trap ants and ter­mites. The hyoid bone func­tions to scrape off the trapped ants and ter­mites and the stom­ach is lined with a hard lam­i­nated ep­ithe­lium to crush in­sect ex­oskele­tons.

On the fore feet there are three well-de­vel­oped claws (the first and fifth dig­its are re­duced) which are curved out­wards to aid in dig­ging. The dor­sal sur­face of the foot is cov­ered with scales while the ven­tral side of the foot has dried wrin­kled skin with a gran­u­lar pad. The hind feet have 5 dig­its with short claws that form a curved line. The scales are grey-brown and are usu­ally 4-5 inches (10-13 cm) long. They ex­tend across en­tire dor­sal sur­face of body but are ab­sent on the ven­tral side of body and the inner sur­face of the limbs. Com­pared to other Manidae species, the tail is pro­por­tion­ally shorter than the body. The tail is also thick at the base, pointed at the tip, and cov­ered en­tirely in scales. The lat­eral sides of body con­tain 15-19 scales, with the largest scales found on the mid­dle of the back, shoul­ders and thighs, and the smaller scales oc­cur­ring on the legs and tail to allow eas­ier move­ment. The re­main­ing por­tion of body that is not cov­ered with scales is pink­ish-grey with fine strands of hair. The scales ex­hibit anti-ad­he­sion and anti-wear prop­er­ties against soil and rock, which al­lows them to eas­ily dig into the ground.

Manis gi­gan­tea is ho­moeother­mic and able to main­tain an in­ter­nal body tem­per­a­ture range of 26.5-34.5 de­grees Cel­sius in am­bi­ent tem­per­a­tures of 17-36 de­grees Cel­sius. Manis gi­gan­tea, like all pan­golins, have lit­tle body hair and a slow me­tab­o­lism, mak­ing them sus­cep­ti­ble to tem­per­a­ture changes, an­other rea­son why they are found in areas of sta­ble tem­per­a­tures. There are no ob­vi­ous signs of sex­ual di­mor­phism. Sex dif­fer­ences in body length or mass could be pre­sent but there is cur­rently no data avail­able. (Botha and Gaudin, 2007; Chal­len­der and Hy­wood, 2012; Doran and All­brook, 1973; Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Heath and Coul­son, 1997; Jones, 1973; King­don, et al., 2013; Nowak, 1991; Pocock, 1924; Tong, et al., 1995)

  • Range mass
    30.0 to 35.0 kg
    66.08 to 77.09 lb
  • Average length
    152.4 cm
    60.00 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Giant pan­golins are soli­tary ex­cept dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son. Their timid be­hav­iour has made them hard to study in gen­eral but es­pe­cially so in re­gards to re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior. Lit­tle is known about re­pro­duc­tion in M. gi­gan­tea but there has been some re­search on a sim­i­lar and closely re­lated African Manidae species, Manis tem­mincki, the ground pan­golin, which is likely to have many sim­i­lar­i­ties to giant pan­golins.

Ground pan­golins (Manis tem­mincki) are ter­res­trial ground-dwelling pan­golin species found in sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa, pri­mar­ily in the sa­van­nas. Their range ex­tends through south­ern and east­ern Africa and they do not occur sym­patri­cally with giant pan­golins. Ground pan­golins are smaller than giant pan­golins and partly di­ur­nal. The fol­low­ing re­pro­duc­tive in­for­ma­tion is data for ground pan­golins. Ground pan­golins are typ­i­cally soli­tary until the mat­ing sea­son, which oc­curs from May to July dur­ing the dry sea­son. Male-male com­pe­ti­tion takes place dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, and the fe­male mates with the win­ner. Males will mate with many fe­males but the num­ber of mates per fe­male is un­known. Males are more motile than fe­males, who re­main in their own home ranges dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. (Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Heath and Coul­son, 1997; Nowak, 1991; Pietersen, et al., 2014)

Noth­ing is known about re­pro­duc­tion in giant pan­golins. How­ever, in closely re­lated ground pan­golins (Manis tem­mincki) there is just one off­spring per ges­ta­tion pe­riod (two off­spring is rare). A ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 139 days was ob­served at the Bloem­fontein Zoo in South Africa. Two mam­mary glands are pre­sent on the ven­tral side of the body be­tween the two fore­limbs. Only two ground pan­golin off­spring have been ob­served at the Bloem­fontein Zoo. The first one, where the time of birth was un­known, weighed 425 g and was 17.78 cm long. The sec­ond baby weighed 340 g and was 15.24 cm long at the time of birth. The young will cling onto the back of the mother after four weeks and will stay at­tached to the moth­ers back for up to 6 months. It is be­lieved that sex­ual ma­tu­rity is reach at one-two years in ground pan­golins

Re­pro­duc­tion has only been ob­served in unique cases in cap­tiv­ity. Un­for­tu­nately, all young pan­golins at the Bloem­fontein Zoo died at a young age due to health com­pli­ca­tions. As pan­golins of all ages do not sur­vive long in cap­tiv­ity noth­ing is known about their age at in­de­pen­dence, sex­ual ma­tu­rity, and time of wean­ing. The adults did not sur­vive long enough to de­ter­mine pat­terns and fea­tures in their re­pro­duc­tion. (Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Ee, 1966; Hua, et al., 2015)

  • Breeding interval
    Breeding interval is unknown.
  • Breeding season
    Breeding season may occur from May to July.
  • Average weaning age
    4 weeks

Moth­ers will carry their young on their back while they are grow­ing or keep them wrapped in­side the base of their tail. Very lit­tle has been ob­served in the wild but in one case of a ground pan­golin (Manis tem­mincki) in cap­tiv­ity (Bloem­fontein Zoo), a mother was very pro­tec­tive and ag­gres­sive when ap­proached by zoo em­ploy­ees. The mother used clawed fore­limbs to at­tack whomever came near and curled into a ball with her young in the cen­ter. As men­tioned be­fore, no off­spring or adult has sur­vived in cap­tiv­ity long enough to ob­serve parental in­vest­ment past a lim­ited num­ber of weeks or months. (Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Ee, 1966)

  • Parental Investment
  • precocial
  • female parental care
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The longest a giant pan­golin has lived in cap­tiv­ity is four years, roughly the same lifes­pan of other pan­golin species in cap­tiv­ity. The longest record of a pan­golin lifes­pan (species un­known) in cap­tiv­ity is 12-13 years but this record is un­usual. Health com­pli­ca­tions are the lead­ing causes of fa­tal­ity. Too much in­ter­ac­tion and dis­tur­bance by hu­mans, es­pe­cially dur­ing the day, has been shown to in­crease stress lev­els sig­nif­i­cantly in cap­tive pan­golins. These high stress lev­els can com­pro­mise their im­mune sys­tems and make them more sus­cep­ti­ble to dis­ease and in­fec­tions. Causes of death range from gas­troin­testi­nal dis­eases, pneu­mo­nia, par­a­sites, and skin disease.​Their di­ges­tive sys­tems are highly spe­cial­ized for a high fat, high pro­tein and high calo­rie diet which can be hard to mimic with ar­ti­fi­cial food.

The lifes­pan and com­mon cause of death in the wild, ex­clud­ing human hunt­ing, of giant pan­golins is un­known. Putting into con­sid­er­a­tion their ob­served low re­pro­duc­tive rate of just one off­spring per ges­ta­tion it is pos­si­ble that their nat­ural lifes­pan is long but fur­ther re­search is re­quired. (Chal­len­der and Hy­wood, 2012; Hua, et al., 2015)

  • Range lifespan
    Status: captivity
    4 (high) years
  • Typical lifespan
    Status: captivity
    1 to 1460 days

Be­hav­ior

In the wild giant pan­golins are timid, noc­tur­nal, soli­tary species spend­ing their days con­cealed and asleep in their bur­rows. Even though they are found in and around forests, giant pan­golins never climb trees. Giant pan­golins are noc­tur­nal, search­ing for food at night and occur in low den­si­ties. When feed­ing they closes their eyes, nos­tril holes and ears to pro­tect them­selves from de­fen­sive at­tacks by ants or ter­mites and they can shake ants and ter­mites off of their scales. Giant pan­golins are sen­si­tive to tem­per­a­ture changes and have slow me­tab­o­lisms plus very lit­tle body hair. Ther­moreg­u­la­tion is usu­ally not a prob­lem be­cause the am­bi­ent tem­per­a­ture in their nat­ural en­vi­ron­ments stays rel­a­tively con­stant but if tem­per­a­tures are too low in cap­tiv­ity, they are in­ca­pable of warm­ing them­selves. (Dorst and Dan­de­lot, 1972; Swart, et al., 1999)

Home Range

In ground pan­golins (Manis tem­mincki), males have larger home ranges than fe­males and the home ranges among same sexes are ad­ja­cent to each other with lit­tle over­lap. The over­lap be­tween male and fe­male home ranges is high and dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son males will move into fe­male home ranges. Ground pan­golins (Manis tem­mincki) also use many dif­fer­ent bur­rows found within their home range. Young pan­golins will set up their ini­tial home range within their mother's range and fe­males will re­main in their natal home ranges for longer pe­ri­ods of time than males. In ground pan­golins (Manis tem­mincki) in South Africa, the av­er­age home ranges for adult male and fe­male adult ground pan­golin are 10.0 ± 8.9 km² and 6.5 ± 5.9 km² re­spec­tively and for young male and fe­male ground pan­golins are 7.1 ± 1.1 km² and 6.1 ± 4.0 km² re­spec­tively. The avail­abil­ity of space may be dif­fer­ent in more west­ern and cen­tral in Africa where Manis gi­gan­tea is found. (Heath and Coul­son, 1997; Pietersen, et al., 2014)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Giant pan­golins re­peat­edly pro­trude and re­tract their tongues to get a sense of the en­vi­ron­ment. The tip of the tongue is very sen­si­tive to touch and is used as a form of per­cep­tion. There are no data in­di­cat­ing if and how they com­mu­ni­cate dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. (Doran and All­brook, 1973)

Food Habits

Giant pan­golins are myrme­cophagous mam­mals, mean­ing a diet spe­cial­ized in ants and ter­mites. All pan­golin species re­quire a diet high in fat and pro­tein. The speci­ficity of their diet is one rea­son why it is so chal­leng­ing to keep them alive in cap­tiv­ity. They for­age at night and are able to dig deep into the soil and de­stroy the un­der­ground nests of ants and ter­mites to eat di­rectly from the nest. They some­times con­sume soil and rocks when for­ag­ing but suf­fer no ad­verse ef­fects. (Botha and Gaudin, 2007; Hua, et al., 2015; Swart, et al., 1999)

  • Animal Foods
  • insects

Pre­da­tion

The scales cov­er­ing the ma­jor­ity of their body serves as a pro­tec­tive layer from preda­tors. In the event of a threat they will curl up into a tight ball with just the scales ex­posed to the out­side. Once rolled into a ball they are vir­tu­ally im­pos­si­ble to un­curl and can cause deep cuts from their scales by con­tract­ing their mus­cles. An­other form of de­fense is the ejec­tion a foul-smelling liq­uid from the anal re­gion to repel preda­tors. Giant pan­golins re­sort to these de­fense mech­a­nisms if they are un­able to make it to their bur­row in time. Giant pan­golins are hunted by hu­mans but other preda­tor’s in the wild are un­known. (Chal­len­der and Hy­wood, 2012; Nowak, 1991; Soewu and Ay­o­dele, 2009)

Ecosys­tem Roles

As men­tioned pre­vi­ously, giant pan­golins spe­cial­ize in ants and ter­mites, eat­ing a sig­nif­i­cant amount of these in­ver­te­brates every year. In doing so, they play an im­por­tant role in reg­u­lat­ing in­sect pop­u­la­tions. Giant pan­golins also act as an im­por­tant host for the par­a­sitic tick, Am­bly­omma com­pres­sum. This tick ex­hibits a high se­lec­tiv­ity to­wards African pan­golins, es­pe­cially giant pan­golins. Rick­ettsia africae is a type of bac­te­ria in spot­ted fever group rick­ettsiae found com­monly in A. com­pres­sum. It is com­mon for giant pan­golins to carry an in­fected tick on their skin and scales and play an im­por­tant role in the spread of this bac­te­ria to dif­fer­ent hosts. (Hua, et al., 2015; Me­di­an­nikov, et al., 2012)

Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hu­mans ben­e­fit from giant pan­golins in many dif­fer­ent ways. The first is that it pro­vides a cheaper al­ter­na­tive of pro­tein for local pop­u­la­tions. In gen­eral, all types of bush­meat are more af­ford­able for lo­cals and hunt­ing bush­meat pro­vides in­come for local in­di­vid­u­als. The tra­di­tional med­i­c­i­nal use of pan­golins is ex­ten­sive in Africa. Un­like other an­i­mals used for tra­di­tional med­i­cine, every body part and age set of giant pan­golins can be used for a spe­cific pur­pose. Med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties can range from treat­ing stom­ach dis­or­ders, pre­vent­ing mis­car­riages and other re­pro­duc­tive com­pli­ca­tions, treat­ing men­tal dis­or­ders and even pro­tec­tion from spir­i­tual at­tacks and cast­ing love spells. A wide range of med­i­c­i­nal treat­ments using pan­golins are com­mon in both African and Asian tra­di­tional med­i­cine. How­ever, it is im­por­tant to note that the ef­fi­cacy of these tra­di­tional uses is not proven. One ben­e­fit to hu­mans that may go un­no­ticed is how much giant pan­golins and other pan­golin species in Africa ef­fec­tively con­trol and reg­u­late in­sect pop­u­la­tions, which have the po­ten­tial to be a sig­nif­i­cant nui­sance to hu­mans. (Soewu and Ay­o­dele, 2009; Will­cox and Nambu, 2007)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

The species Am­bly­omma com­pres­sion is a tick with a high speci­ficity for M. gi­gan­tea. These ticks are par­a­sites that are often hosts to spot­ted fever group (SRG) rick­ettsia, a bac­terium re­spon­si­ble for ill­ness among trav­ellers and lo­cals in Sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa. In one study, three pan­golins (M. gi­gan­tea) con­tained a total of 12 A. com­pres­sum and ap­prox­i­mately 50% of them were in­fected with the bac­te­ria Rick­ettsia africae. Rick­ettsia africae is a dan­ger­ous bac­terium re­spon­si­ble for African tick-bite fever, a se­ri­ous health con­cern for hu­mans along­side malaria. Human con­tact with pan­golins has in­creased due to higher de­mand in bush­meat, body parts for med­i­c­i­nal pur­poses and poach­ing for il­le­gal trad­ing to other coun­tries. (Freed­man, et al., 2006; Me­di­an­nikov, et al., 2012; Soewu and Ay­o­dele, 2009)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Under the IUCN List M. gi­gan­tea was clas­si­fied as near threat­ened in 2008 and is now clas­si­fied as Vul­ner­a­ble with de­clin­ing pop­u­la­tion num­bers con­tin­u­ing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vices even go on to say that pan­golins may be “among the most traf­ficked mam­mals in the world”. All pan­golin species are listed in Ap­pen­dix II of Con­ven­tion of In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. De­spite their dwin­dling num­bers, there con­tin­ues to be many seizures of unau­tho­rized ex­ports of African pan­golins to Asian mar­kets. The de­tec­tion of pan­golin smug­gling is low and it is be­lieved that the rate of il­le­gal poach­ing oc­cur­ring in Africa is far greater than cur­rently doc­u­mented. In­creases in African pan­golin poach­ing to ship to Asian mar­kets are a re­sult of the na­tive Asian species being over hunted. There are no data on M. gi­gan­tea on the US Fed­eral list but M. tem­minckii (the ground pan­golin), an­other African pan­golin closely re­lated to M. gi­gan­tea is listed as En­dan­gered on the US Fed­eral list.

Pan­golins are used ex­ten­sively for med­i­c­i­nal pur­poses across Africa. In one study, a total of 178 pan­golin car­casses were sold in the African mar­ket for tra­di­tional pur­poses, of those re­cip­i­ents 90% were un­aware of the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of pan­golins, 55% only had a pri­mary ed­u­ca­tion, 14% ad­mit­ted to pay­ing hunters to de­lib­er­ately hunt pan­golins when needed and over 98% of these hunters had no other means of in­come, Most (95%) of re­cip­i­ents were ap­a­thetic to­wards pan­golins, be­liev­ing that all an­i­mals on earth were meant to serve a pur­pose for hu­mans. This men­tal­ity, the high de­mand for poach­ing, and a lack of in­sight on their con­ser­va­tion sta­tus and life his­tory traits poses a huge threat to M. gi­gan­tea and all of the other pan­golin species. An­other con­cern is that all age classes, ju­ve­nile to late adult, are used in med­ical treat­ments, with each age class serv­ing spe­cific pur­poses. Along­side tra­di­tional med­i­cine, pan­golins are im­por­tant as a local bush­meat.

An­other con­cern to con­ser­va­tion is the im­mense dif­fi­culty in keep­ing pan­golin species alive and healthy in cap­tiv­ity. Many zoos have at­tempted and al­most all species have died quickly and painfully from dis­ease and other causes. If a species were to be­come ex­tinct in the wild, there is cur­rently no hope­ful al­ter­na­tive of a cap­tive breed­ing pro­gram. If the rate of hunt­ing does not change, M. gi­gan­tea will likely be­come ex­tinct in the near fu­ture. Ed­u­cat­ing local pop­u­la­tions and the rest of the world about the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of M. gi­gan­tea and its life his­to­ries may help al­le­vi­ate hunt­ing pres­sures and de­creased com­mer­cial­iza­tion in Africa. (Brautigam and Howes, 1994; Chal­len­der and Hy­wood, 2012; Kwame Boakye, et al., 2015; Sodeinde and Soewu, 1999; Soewu and Ay­o­dele, 2009; Will­cox and Nambu, 2007)

Other Com­ments

Fam­ily Manidae was orig­i­nally in­cluded in the order Eden­tata along­side sloths, ar­madil­los and anteaters be­cause of its lack of teeth, but these sim­i­lar­i­ties are now con­sid­ered to be a re­sult of con­ver­gent evo­lu­tion. Giant pan­golins and the rest of Fam­ily Manidae are placed in their own sep­a­rate order Pholi­dota and are more closely re­lated to order Car­nivora. Ac­cord­ing to local leg­ends, pan­golins will set­tle into an ant’s nest and crush the ants that reach under its scales. Keep­ing the now dead ants un­der­neath their scales, they will then sub­merge them­selves in water and allow the ants to float to the top to con­sume them, cre­at­ing what is called an "ant bath". (Nowak, 1991)

Con­trib­u­tors

Claire Gal­lagher Fen­ton (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Man­i­toba, Jane Wa­ter­man (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Man­i­toba, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

causes disease in humans

an animal which directly causes disease in humans. For example, diseases caused by infection of filarial nematodes (elephantiasis and river blindness).

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

fossorial

Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior, specialized for digging or burrowing.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

young precocial

young are relatively well-developed when born

Ref­er­ences

Botha, J., T. Gaudin. 2007. An Early Pliocene Pan­golin (Mam­malia; Pholi­dota) from Lange­ban­weg, South Africa. Jour­nal of Ver­te­brate Pa­le­on­tol­ogy, 27.2: 484-491.

Brautigam, A., J. Howes. 1994. Re­cent In­for­ma­tion on the Sta­tus and Uti­liza­tion of African Pan­golins. TRAF­FIC Bul­letin, 15.1: 15-22.

Chal­len­der, D., L. Hy­wood. 2012. African Pan­golins Under In­creased Pres­sure From Poach­ing and In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal Trade. TRAF­FIC Bul­letin, 24.2: 53-55.

Doran, G., D. All­brook. 1973. The Tongue and As­so­ci­ated Struc­tures in Two Species of African Pan­golins, Manis Gi­gan­tea and Manis Tri­cus­pis. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 54.4: 887-899.

Dorst, J., P. Dan­de­lot. 1972. A Field Guide to the Larger Mam­mals of Africa. St. James Place, Lon­don: Collins.

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