Range

Africa is the native home of the tree pangolin. Here they can be found throughout Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

Habitat

Tree pangolins make their home in forests and woodlands. They seem partially tolerant and can be found in palm oil plantations and farmland.

Reproduction

Breeding can take place year round and typically a female is either pregnant or raising young with little to no break.

To advertise that they are ready for mating they deposit feces and mark trees with urine throughout their range.

Gestation lasts for 5 months. At the conclusion of this a single infant is born. On a very rare occasion they may have twins. When they are born they have soft scales which take a few days to harden. Their eyes are open at birth.

During the first few weeks of life they cannot walk. Instead young cling to the mother’s tail. If the pair are threatened the mother forms a ball and places the baby in the middle of her.

By one month old they will start to try ants and termites. Weaning takes place at four months old and by five months old they will go off on their own.

It will take them two years to become sexually mature.

Behavior

When threatened the tree pangolin will roll in to a ball. This helps to protect the underside which is not covered with scales and thus vulnerable to predators.

Tree pangolins are diurnal and spend the day looking for food. They take shelter in tree hollows.

They can walk on their back legs by balancing using the tail.

Pangolins are able swimmers.

Predators and Threats

Tree pangolins face predation from lion, hyenas, African golden cats and pythons.

Their main defense against a predator is to curl in a ball and face their hard scales out. They will also hiss and puff. They can also secrete a foul smelling substance from an anal gland.

Humans are the main threat to tree pangolins. They are hunted in large numbers for the illegal wildlife trade. As many as 1 million were trafficked between 2000 and 2013.

They are hunted to gather their scales, organs and meat. These are used in traditional medicines for a range of illnesses. Some are also eaten as a delicacy.

Poaching used to focus on the Asian species but as they become increasingly rare the African species such as the tree pangolin are targeted more often.

The commercial trade in the pangolin was banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 2016.

In addition to poaching tree pangolins are also threatened by habitat destruction and degredation.

Quick facts

The name pangolin comes from ‘penggulung’ which is a Malay word meaning roller. It references the way they roll up as a ball if threatened.

Tree pangolins are one of the eight species of pangolin.

Pangolins are the only known mammal to have scales.

Tree pangolins are known by a number of other names including the white-bellied pangolin, scaly anteater, three-cusped pangolin and the small-scaled tree pangolin.