A young lion tests the power of its jaws against the defensive tactics of a ground pangolin that has rolled itself into a ball to protect itself, leaving only slippery sharp-edged hard scales exposed. To make themselves even less tasty, pangolins, or scaly anteaters, can emit a strong noxious acid from the base of their tail. Sometimes a patient lion breaks through the armor, and sometimes it gives up and the pangolin returns to live another day. Until recently, leopards and hyenas were their main predators, but relentless hunting by humans over the last two decades has devastated their populations.
Like rhino horns, the pangolins’ scales are made of keratin, the same material as our fingernails, with no known medicinal value. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of pangolins are killed each year and their scales illegally trafficked to Asia for use in traditional medicine, threatening all eight pangolin species with extinction.
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2 сен 2019
