Sunda Pangolin

Lore & Background

In the past, this species has included the closely related Palawan pangolin (M. culionensis), as both are in the subgenus Paramanis. It is closely related to the Chinese pangolin, although the Malayan species is larger, lighter in colour, and has shorter fore claws. During the Pilo-Pleistocene, something that has shaped its phylogeographic patterns is the experience of the pangolin geographically and its climate history. It is important to the traditions of Orang Asli in the Malay Peninsula and indigenous peoples of Sabah like the Kadazan, Dusun, Murut and Rungus. The Kadazans use its scales to make special armour to protect their warriors.

In Their Own Story

In 1597, the Dutch merchant-explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In June 1860, the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the north coast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote: 'I was astonished and delighted; as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles (16 or 19 kilometres) inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best-cultivated parts of Europe.' The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers, who, rather than yield to the superior Dutch force, committed ritual suicide (puputan) to avoid the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese killed themselves rather than surrender. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar mass suicide occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

Reader's Guide

The Sunda pangolin has poor eyesight, but a highly developed sense of smell. Lacking teeth, its long, sticky tongue serves to collect ants and termites. It has thick and powerful claws to dig into soils in search of ant nests or to tear into termite mounds. The skin of its feet is granular, although pads are found on its front feet. It is covered by rows of scales (made of keratin) and fibrous hair. Its scales are brown in color; some have white scales along their tails. Head-body length is 40–65 cm, tail length is 35–56 cm, weight up to 10 kg. Males are larger than females. Mature females have needle-like nipples. Pangolins give birth annually to one or two offspring. They breed in autumn, and females give birth in winter burrows. Parental care is given for about three months. They are solitary, nocturnal, and timid. They protect themselves by rolling into balls. They are strong diggers and make burrows lined with vegetation. Sunda pangolins have low immunity, making them sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Their main predators are humans, tigers, and the clouded leopard.

Did You Know?

• The Sunda pangolin's scales are made of keratin, the same material as human hair and nails.
• It has a highly developed sense of smell but poor eyesight.
• Mature female pangolins have needle-like nipples that do not change when nursing.
• The Sunda pangolin is currently considered critically endangered due to poaching and habitat loss.