![]() ![]() Tell all your Chinese guests (and of course, if there are any, the Vietnamese as well) that they should stop using parts of wild animals for so-called medical or other purposes. What can we do to help preserve this wonderful African wildlife? I don’t know, though I think what we should try is educate, educate and educate people. Some make me really sad, like the one about the baby leopard who got killed, others I find so informative, like the one on the Pangolin.Įvery day when I read one of your blogs I just wish I could be at Londolozi again (I tried to come in May, however, you were fully booked – next year, maybe). I just love reading all your articles on Londolozi’s wildlife. Written and Photographed by Amy Attenborough, Londolozi Ranger No one would miss a species they didn’t know existed and so it is wild places like Londolozi that are so important because they are a space where people have the opportunity to meet and fall in love with some of our weirder African animals.ĭo you have any ideas or suggestions for things that we could do to protect this vulnerable species? Although these extraordinary creatures are not in the limelight, they are a reminder of the diversity of species and design on planet earth. However it is an incredibly special animal that needs our protection, particularly at a time like this when the market looks to our African population as a source to replace the dwindling Asian population. ![]() The Pangolin is an obscure looking creature and may not be the most beautiful or charismatic of the African species. Although their eye sight is poor, they have a fantastic sense of smell which they use to locate their food. This was one of my most special encounters with a pangolin who no mater where I went, kept walking towards me and bumping into me. At rest the tongue retracts into a sheath in its chest cavity and in some of the smaller pangolin species, their tongue is actually longer than their entire body length.ħ) They do not have teeth and so their food is ground down in their muscular stomach, which also has keratinous spines projecting into its interior, and is ground against soil and small pebbles ingested during the feeding process, similar to a bird’s gizzard.Ĩ) They have an incredibly good sense of smell and can actually close their ears and nostrils when feeding to keep insects out.ĩ) They live about twenty years, give birth to one baby at a time, which they wean at about three months and which catches rides on its’ mothers back or tail.ġ0) David Attenborough named the sunda pangolin as one of his ten species he would take on his ark to save from extinction. Amazingly the tongue is actually attached near its pelvis and last pair of ribs. Photo: Don Heynekeĥ) They have large claws and powerful forearms, which they use to dig into the ground as well as termite mounds for food. It is believed that pangolins eat more than 70 million insects per year, mostly made up of ants and termites.Ħ) They have a long, sticky tongue that they use to lap up their food. ![]() If none of these tactics work, they may even emit a noxious-smelling acid from glands near the anus to try to chase away the predator. They do also have the ability to thrash their scaled tail about while trying to get away, which is enough to cut a predator’s skin. Once balled up like this, the pangolin becomes like an impenetrable fortress that even lions, leopards and tigers cannot break into. ![]()
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