An Animal in South Africa Like an Armadillo
An Animal in South Africa Like an Armadillo
When the famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough was invited to choose whichten threatened animals he would save from extinction, one that he placed on his listing was the mysterious pangolin,the only mammal on the planet with scales. "It's ane of the most endearing animals I have e'er met. Huge numbers of them are illegally exported, mainly to China," said Attenborough. He discovered information technology afterward rescuing ane from a cooking pot in Asia during the filming of a documentary. Here we review what makes this animal then dissimilar and and so coveted.
What makes the pangolin then special?
The truth is that almost everything almost this animal is special,from its unique advent—which has earned it descriptions such as an "anteater with scales" or an "artichoke with legs"—to its comical andhumanoid ability to stand up on its two hind legs and, with the support provided by its powerful prehensile tail, wobble frontward. This makes information technology one of the few mammals—along with humans and some primates and kangaroos—that exercise bipedalism.
The pangolin is besides the just mammal with scales—like to those of fish and reptiles, while the shell of the armadillo is bony in nature. These scales grade an armour that covers the height of the head, all the dorsum and tail, merely not the face, throat, abdomen and the inside of the legs. It serves every bit protection confronting its predators: when feeling threatened information technology rolls itself up and becomes an armoured ball.
What does it feed on?
The caput of the pangolin is small compared to the torso, and elongated. It has a tubular snout and a toothless rima oris, with a narrow, muscular and sticky tongue—lubricated by huge salivary glands—which it inserts into anthills and termite mounds to feed on tens of thousands of these insects daily, digesting them with the aid ofsmall pebbles that accrue in its stomach.
Its tongue is as long as the whole body and is fastened at its base to a pelvic bone. When not being used it remains wrapped in a kind of pocket or bag inside the throat, which greatly limits its power to vocalize. In fact, pangolins communicate with each other past chemical signals that secrete through special glands, taking advantage of an boggling sense of olfactory property, which makes up for its poor vision and hearing.
Are they related to armadillos and anteaters?
Although for a time the pangolins were grouped together with armadillos and anteaters in the Edentata superorder, it is now considered that the similarities and parallelisms betwixt ane and the other are the event of a procedure ofconvergent evolution.
In fact, pangolins are and then unique thatan order has been divers, Pholidota, composedonly of the eight known pangolin species: four Asian and four African, including the giant pangolin. These species differ, in addition to their place of origin, by their size and by their manner of life—either arboreal or terrestrial: the smallest species (arboreal) barely accomplish ii kg, while the behemothic pangolin (terrestrial) can exceed 30 kg.
Why are pangolins notwithstanding a mystery?
Information technology'south considering there are yet manyaspects of their nature and behaviour that are unknown: how they pair and mate, how long gestation lasts, how long they live in the wild or if their behaviour is more than or less territorial.
This is because they are very shy animals, lone and nocturnal; when they are forced to live together or are torn from their environment and moved they become greatly stressed, develop ulcers, stop feeding, become ambitious and end up dying. And the worst affair is that, at their electric current rate of disappearance the pangolin volition eventually become extinct without many of these questions being answered.
Why have they become such widespread victims of beast trafficking?
This is due to the growing and massive demand for these animals from Asia, especially from China and Vietnam, wherelarge sums are paid for their meat and scales. Behind this increasing demand is the economic growth in both countries, in which eating pangolin is a sit-in of wealth. Thus, wealthy businessmen become to exclusive restaurants in the company of friends and colleagues and guild a live specimen, which is presented at the tabular array before being sacrificed earlier the diners. This makes it clear that their businesses are booming and that they can afford to splurge. They pay up to $ane,000 for a alive pangolin and $300 per kilo for the meat.
A large number of the pangolins captured in Asia go to restaurants, which in turn has caused demand to movement to Africa—the other continent where there are pangolins—which has become the second largest market and supplier of these animals. However, due to the extreme sensitivity and stress that they suffer and which prevents them from surviving the shipment to Asia, African pangolins are mainly used for meat markets and for the supply of scales to traditional medicine establishments, where they accomplish $3,000 per kilo.
What is special about pangolin plates or scales?
The different traditional eastern medicines aspect all kinds of virtues and healing powers to them. For instance, the official treatise of traditional Vietnamese medicine recommends them as invigorating, to meliorate blood circulation, cure ulcers and promote the secretion of breast milk, and also to treat acne and scrofula. Other traditional medicinesprescribe them as a cure for arthritis and even cancer.
However, the truth is that pangolin scales are only plates or deposits of highly keratinized cells. In other words, they are full of keratin poly peptide, just similar rhino horns… and human nails. As conservationist Maria Diekmann puts it, "if they have power to cure cancerand so so does bitter your fingernails". But, "that'south the cultural conventionalities and it'south and then sometime and and then deeply ingrained information technology'southward very hard to shift."
What measures are existence taken to curb this situation?
And so far, the 182 nations that have signed theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have reached an agreement for the full ban on merchandise in pangolins.
In add-on, and led by Attenborough himself, amedia campaign has been launched to raise public awareness and save the pangolin.
Miguel Barral
@ migbarral
An Animal in South Africa Like an Armadillo
Source: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/bioscience/the-pangolin-the-strangest-and-most-desired-animal-in-the-world/
Komentar
Posting Komentar