Smutsia

African ground pangolin (Smutsia - "Smuts's animal") is a genus of pangolins from subfamily Smutsiinae within family Manidae. It was formerly considered a subgenus of genus Manis. Its members are the more terrestrial of the African pangolins. In past, this genus was also present in Europe.

Description

The Smutsia species can be easily distinguished due to the layer of protective horny scales. They have a long streamlined body, its small coned shaped head, and thick tails that are covered with overlapping scales that resemble artichoke leaves. The color of these scales are between a yellow and brown color and are composed of fused hairs. These scales are often important to this species, when it feels threatened, they will roll itself into an impenetrable ball and the sharp scales are left exposed to the predator.

Diet and nutrition

The ground pangolins are carnivorous animals that only eat termites and ants and oftentimes will also eat larvae and other soft-bodied insects.

Mating life

Ground pangolins are described as polygynous animals which means when one male mates with multiple females but females can only mate with a single male. During the mating process, gestation may occur for 139 days until one young is born. The setting in which this occurs is an underground shelter until the babies reach 2 to 4 weeks then they are carried outside. The baby will stay with its mother until it reaches 3 months of birth. Pups are able to start the breeding process until they are 5–7 years old.

Etymology
British naturalist John Edward Gray named Smutsia for South African naturalist Johannes Smuts (1808–1869), the first South African to write a treatise on mammals in 1832 (in which he described the species Manis temminckii).

Taxonomy

 * Subfamily: Smutsiinae (Gray, 1873) (large African pangolins)
 * Genus: Smutsia (Gray, 1865) (African ground pangolin)
 * Smutsia gigantea (Illiger, 1815) (giant pangolin)
 * Smutsia temminckii (Smuts, 1832) (ground pangolin)
 * †Smutsia olteniensis (Terhune, 2021)

Phylogeny
Phylogenetic position of genus Smutsia within family Manidae