Pangolins are covered with scales which is rare in mammals. They have long, powerful claws and are known to curl into a ball.

The Sunda pangolin has scales that are mostly dark brown in colour, though they are frequently found with ‘white’ scales on their tails and the reason for this is unknown. Pangolins have been described as ‘walking pinecones’, and ‘modern-day dinosaurs’. If you see them in the wild you might think they are related to other ant-eating species but scientists now know one of their closest relatives is actually the mongoose! The word pangolin comes from the Malay word “pengguiling”, which is roughly translated as ‘something that rolls up’. Pangolins live in Asia and Africa. Normally very shy animals, Indian pangolins have been known to wander into villages and use their impressive claws to dig through concrete and into houses. The Cape pangolin is known to live in burrows already dug by aardvarks and aardwolves. Pangolins are now the world’s most illegally traded wild mammal with more than one million having been poached over the past decade. That’s more than rhinos, elephants and tigers combined.