Most of their diet consists of various species of ants and termites, and may be supplemented by other insects, especially larvae. They are somewhat particular and tend to consume only one or two species of insects, even when many species are available to them. A pangolin can consume 140 to 200 g (5 to 7 oz) of insects per day.
On a typical day, pangolins can consume 140 to 200 grams of insects. Since they have no teeth, pangolins consume their prey whole, using a unique stomach to digest the food.
A query we ran across in our research was “How many pounds of termites can a pangolin eat?”.
Pangolins are the world’s only scaly mammals, and small as they appear, an adult pangolin weighing 6.6 pounds can consume more than 0.66 pounds of termites in one meal. Thanks to their big appetite, one pangolin can protect an area as large as 31 football fields (41 acres) from termite destruction.
Do pangolins eat ants?
Pangolins mostly eat ants and termites, although they will eat a few other invertebrates as well. A single pangolin can consume up to 20,000 ants a day. That’s about 73 million ants a year! Does anything predate pangolins? Pangolins are so well protected by their scales that very few predators are able to kill them.
You might be thinking “Do pangolins live on the ground?”
Many live on the ground, but some, like the black-bellied pangolin, also climb trees . Like anteaters, pangolins have long snouts and even longer tongues, which they use to snack on ants and termites they dig up from mounds with their powerful front claws.
How many babies do pangolins have?
Female pangolins have a gestation period of five months and give birth to just one live baby. At birth, babies, called pangopups, are only about 6 inches (15.24 cm) long and weigh 12 ounces (340 grams), according to the African Wildlife Foundation. Their scales are pink and soft, but start to harden after a day.
One frequent answer is, all species of pangolin have exceptionally strong tails. There are eight species of pangolin, all of which comprise the mammalian order Pholidota or “scaled animals,” referencing the keratinous scales that cover their bodies. The group has a long fossil history of more than 80 million years, but only one family remains today: Manidae.
Pangolins eat ants, termites and larvae and are often known as “the scaly anteater.” Because they have no teeth, pangolins pick up food with their sticky tongues, which can sometimes reach lengths greater than the animal’s body. The most trafficked mammal in the world?
How do pangolins affect the ecosystem?
Due to the insectivorous diet, these animals may affect insect populations in their range. It is estimated that every year adult Sunda pangolin eats about 70 million insects. By constructing burrows and digging in order to reach ants and termites, pangolins also aid in soil aeration.