Sanctuary | Natural History
38 Sanctuary Asia, April 2018Photographer: Sylvie Benatar
Location: Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra
Details: Camera: Sony DSC-RX10M3, Shutter speed: 1/160 sec., Aperture: f/4,
ISO 100, Focal length: 600 mm.
Image taken: May 28, 2017; 8:11 a.m.Not So
Invincible
Sanctuary Asia, April 2018The pangolin, the only mammal with scales, evolved
over 80 million years into ‘one who rolls up’ – as its Malay
origin word ‘pengguling’ means. This strategy of rolling up
into a ball, exposing only its hard scales has proven to be an
evolutionary success and has given it an ‘invincible’ reputation.
The eight modern species of pangolins including the Indian
pangolin Manis crassicaudata shared an ancestor that
diverged from insectivores some 100 million years ago.
The pangolin’s armor is really a coating of overlapping
scales made of keratin (the fi brous protein which is the
major constituent of our hair and nails). Genomic studies
suggest that the armor gradually replaced part of their
immune response – in that it not only kept predators away
but also kept the pangolins free of infection. Once in a while,
nevertheless, a predator successfully penetrates the pangolin’s
almost impenetrable defences to get to the scaleless,
vulnerable part – its abdomen. Against humans, the species
is defenceless. All the eight pangolin species are endangered.
They are the most hunted and traffi cked animal species on
the planet. t