Todd Skinner, age 10, of Tulsa, Okla., for his question:
WHAT IS A PANGOLIN?
The biggest pangolin looks for all the world like a walking pine cone 5 feet long. His smaller cousin often dangles from a bough by his tail like a scaly ball at the end of scaly rope. These remarkable animals live in faraway places, in parts of Africa and Asia.
Scientists call him the scaly anteater. This is logical because he wears scales and feeds on ants. The Malays named him the pangolin, which in their language means the roller.. This also is logical because when scared he rolls his long tapering body into a neat coil.
He may be 5, 4 or 3 feet long, depending upon his species. But in any case, he is covered with scales like a pine cone. Large scales overlap down the length of his back and sides and also enfold his tail, which may be wide or extra long and ropy. Smaller scales cover his narrow head and part of his pointed nose. More, even smaller scales reach down his stubby legs to the strong claws on his toes.
Scales, as we know, are very popular with fishes and reptiles. But the pangolin is not related to these animals. He is classed with the furry mammals because a baby pangolin is fed on mother's milk. Actually, those pine cone scales are really plates made from special wads of hair and there are a few ordinary hairs on his scaleless tummy.
A pangolin usually dozes through the day in a burrow. At night he comes out and uses his mighty claws to tear open the nests of ants and termites. As the terrified insects scurry around, he gathers them up on his sticky tongue, which may be a foot long. He swallows them whole, for a pangolin has no teeth.
Most of the pangolin cousins live in the trees, where they poke around for ants and termites under the bark. Africa's giant pangolin lives on the ground, though he may climb a tree to escape trouble. Often he shuffles along on his sturdy back legs, leaning forward with his front legs dangling above the ground.
In captivity pangolins never breed and seldom live very long. So we do not know much about their family lives. As a rule, the female bears one scaly baby. He feeds on mother's milk and rides around on her back.