User:Dunya16/sandbox

Pangolin pangolin

What are pangolins?

A pangolin is a mammal that is part of the Manidae family, the class of the Mammalia. Pholidota is the scientific name given to the pangolin by the scientists who discovered it. Pangolins are anteaters that have scales and they can grow up to 60 cm!!!. The largest weight that a pangolin has ever been recorded was said to be 33kgs whilst a Chinese pangolin was said to weigh only 3.6 kgs. Pangolins give birth to live babies and they tend to live in hot and dry places like the woodlands and savannah.

'What is the average lifespan of the pangolin? ' Pangolins are extremely shy animals which makes it incredibly hard to examine those creatures. However, after a lot of research, the scientists were able to discover that pangolins can live up to 20 years in their natural habitats and only 7 years if they were caught.

'How do pangolins protect themselves in the wild? ' When pangolins feel threatened they roll themselves up into near-perfect balls protecting their faces and undersides, however, this makes them more vulnerable to poaching as it is very easy to capture them as their defence mechanism isn't that strong.

Pangolins are now an endangered species due to illegal hunting and poaching for illicit international trade. Pangolins are said to be the world's most trafficked animals and they are a delicacy in China and Vietnam as they are used for their meat and their scales, which are used as a traditional ingredient in Asia. They spend most of their time up in trees or asleep in dens underground. Pangolins are similar to skunks as they release a horrible acid smelling like substance when they feel threatened to scare predators away.

'''Life on land vs what life would be like in the water.  Life on land''' A Pangolin’s normal life is on land, as it benefits them because they are anteaters and that means that they need to be on land in order to eat land insects. Pangolins prefer to live in dry and hot areas like woodlands and savannah. On land, they breathe normal oxygen and they eat insects and worms. Pangolins have strong claws to help them pull the tree barks off to find insects to feed on, as well as help them find termites and ants. They do not have teeth to break down their food so they swallow small rocks and sand to digest their food properly. '''Life underwater ''' If Pangolins live underwater they won’t change much because they already have scales like fish. The only adjustments that we will need to modify are adding gills to help them breathe underwater. Pangolins would also need to have fins to help it swim. There will be no effect with it from the other fish because it can protect itself by rolling up into a near-perfect ball and it can camouflage itself to make it look like they are part of the rocks that are found underwater.