Giant Pangolin
| Giant Pangolin | |||
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| オオセンザンコウ | |||
| Character Data | |||
| AKA | Sen
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| Romaji | Ōsenzankō
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| Debut | Kemono Friends (2015 Game) | ||
| Animal Data | |||
| Scientific Name | Smutsia gigantea
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| Distribution | Africa
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| Diet | Insectivore
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| Avg. Lifespan | 4 Years
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| Read More | Giant pangolin
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| Conservation | 
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| Giant Pangolin | Season 2 | Festival | Pavilion | KF3 | Nexon Game | Gallery |
Giant Pangolin is a Mammalia Friend that appeared in the original Kemono Friends mobile game.
Appearance
Giant Pangolin has blond short hair cutted at least shoulders-level, and an orange deerstalker with Giant Pangolin's scales. She wears a sleeveless white shirt accompanied by a sleeveless pink sweater and an orange necktie. Her skirt and gloves are entirely made of scales of the specie which she belongs to. At last, she carries lace up long boots, ears and tail that also belongs to her specie. Her tail is extremely long, and may exceed two meters length.
Series Appearances
| Media | Role | |
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In Real Life
The giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea or Manis gigantea) is a pangolin species. The largest and heaviest of all pangolins, M. gigantea weighs 30.0-35.0 kg. It has an elongated body with a thick tail covered with keratinized epidermal cells in the form of overlapping scales. They use their strong heavy forelimbs to dig burrows and nests for shelter and food.
When pangolins feel threatened, they curl up into a tight, almost impenetrable ball to protect their tender undersides. If caught, they will thrash about using their tail muscles. Because their scales have very sharp edges, they can slice the skin of a human or predator when they do this. They may also release the stinky fluid from their glands as a defense mechanism.
In response to their food habits their head is long, narrow, external pinnae are absent, thick heavy eyelids protect the eyes and they have no teeth. Since they are toothless, the muscles that aid in chewing and biting, the masseter and temporalis, are absent. When protruded, the maximum length of the tongue is 70 cm and when it is retracted it lays ventral to the thorax and trachea and stretches all the way down to the abdomen
Giant pangolins are insectivore mammals, meaning a diet specialized in ants and termites. Because of its relatively large size, the giant pangolin is particularly well-suited to breaking open termite mounds by leaning on the mound and resting its weight on its tail, and then ripping into the mound with its front claws. The combination of weight and physical damage quickly leads to a partial collapse of the mound, exposing the termites. As mentioned previously, giant pangolins specialize in ants and termites, eating a significant amount of these invertebrates every year. In doing so, they play an important role in regulating insect populations.
In the wild giant pangolins are timid, nocturnal, solitary species spending their days concealed and asleep in their burrows. Even though they are found in and around forests, giant pangolins never climb trees. Giant pangolins are nocturnal, searching for food at night and occur in low densities. When feeding they closes their eyes, nostril holes and ears to protect themselves from defensive attacks by ants or termites and they can shake ants and termites off of their scales.
Giant pangolins repeatedly protrude and retract their tongues to get a sense of the environment. The tip of the tongue is very sensitive to touch and is used as a form of perception. Nevertheless, Pangolins have poor vision and hearing.
Trivia
- The longest a giant pangolin has lived in captivity is four years, roughly the same lifespan of other pangolin species in captivity. The longest record of a pangolin lifespan (species unknown) in captivity is 12-13 years but this record is unusual.
- It’s believed that a single pangolin consumes more than 70 million insects per year. They mainly eat ants and termites.
- There are a total of eight species of pangolin on our planet. Four live in Asia, Four others live in Africa.
References
1. "Smutsia gigantea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature.
2. Manis gigantea (giant pangolin)." Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
3. "Pangolins' facts". pangolins, by Sarah Pappin.