Ever wish you could roll into ball and close off from the entire world? Well the Palawan Pangolin can do that!
Also known as the scaly anteater, the Palawan Pangolin (Manis culionensis) is one of 8 species of Pangolin in the world. It uses it’s scaly “armor” as a defense against predators, and has a very long tongue that it uses to eat ants and termites.
For World Pangolin Day this year, I decided to make some infographics highlighting the most trafficked mammal in the world.
For more trivia, check out the infographics below!
Did you know that pangolins can walk on their hind legs, using their tails as a balance?
One of the most interesting things about the Palawan Pangolin is a lot about Palawan. Unlike other islands in the Philippines, Palawan is the only island that was ever connected to an Asian landmass1. All the other Philippine islands stayed isolated in the ocean.
Palawan’s connection to Asia was through a land bridge connecting it with the island of Borneo, which is shared by the countries of Indonesia and Malaysia today. This land bridge was formed due to lower sea levels at the time, around less than a million years ago.
Here is an excerpt from a study2 that proposes that it was through this land bridge that the Palawan Pangolin’s ancestors rolled into Palawan.
Isolation through sea level rising (approximately 800,000–500,000 years ago) of proto-Palawan pangolins coming from Borneo through Early Pleistocene land bridges might have promoted the speciation of M. culionensis, a Palawan endemic species to be considered of high conservation concern.
How you can help
- Support the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD). Report any indication of illegal trafficking of the Palawan Pangolin by contacting the following phone numbers: 0935 116 2336 (Globe/ TM), 0948 937 2200 (Smart/ Talk and Text).
- Email PCSD oed@pcsd.gov.ph, eeed@pcsd.gov.ph and see how you can help.
- Unfortunately not only Palawan Pangolins are trafficked, humans are too. Learn more about child trafficking from ECPAT Philippines. Child prostitution and pornography is rampant, yet unseen, in the Philippines.
Support my art
- Get an art print on Society6.
- Support my on-going research and art projects on Philippine biodiversity (& more) on Patreon.
Sources
- Molina J. “Philippine Biogeography”. 2011 onwards. Co’s Digital Flora of the Philippines. www.philippineplants.org.
- P. Gaubert and A. Antunes. 2005. “Assessing the Taxonomic Status of the Palawan Pangolin Manis culionensis (Pholidota) Using Discrete Morphological Characters.”
- World Wildlife Fund.
Publish date: April 25, 2019.