Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

African tree pan­golins, Manis tri­cus­pis, range across cen­tral Africa, from Sene­gal to Keyna in the east and north­ern An­gola in the south. (An­der­son, et al., 1967)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

African tree pan­golins in­habit pri­mary trop­i­cal forests as well as mo­saic forests. They are both ar­bo­real, as their com­mon name im­plies, as well as ter­res­trial. (Nowak, 1991; Nowak, 1991; Sinsin, 2008)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

African tree pan­golins are char­ac­ter­ized by their epony­mous scales, which ter­mi­nate in three cusps. This scaly cov­er­ing is found all over the body ex­cept on most of the face, the in­side sur­face of the legs and the un­der­belly. Scale color ranges from dark brown to rus­set to a brown­ish yel­low. They have an elon­gate skull and a long tongue that serves as their pri­mary feed­ing tool. Their claws are large and curved, which as­sists them in their ar­bo­real be­hav­ior and di­etary habits. African tree pan­golins ex­press some sex­ual di­mor­phism, as males are slightly larger than fe­males. They gen­er­ally weigh be­tween 4.5 and 14 kg and are 31 to 45 cm in length. Their av­er­age body tem­per­a­ture ranges from 32.6 to 33.6 ˚C. African tree pan­golins are smaller than their cousin Manis gi­gan­tea, and their tails are thin­ner than those of most of their African and Asian coun­ter­parts. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Nowak, 1991; Rahm, 1956)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Range mass

  4.5 to 14 kg

  9.91 to 30.84 lb

• Range length

  31 to 45 cm

  12.20 to 17.72 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

African tree pan­golins are usu­ally soli­tary, but they have been ob­served trav­el­ing in pairs. When a male comes across a fe­male, mat­ing oc­curs if the fe­male is in es­trus. Lit­tle else is known re­gard­ing the mat­ing sys­tems of African tree pan­golins. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Nowak, 1991; Sinsin, 2008)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Al­though un­cer­tain, it is be­lieved that African tree pan­golins can re­pro­duce at any time of the year. Ges­ta­tion lasts ap­prox­i­mately 150 days. Fe­males usu­ally give birth to 1 in­fant, and,though un­com­mon, may pro­duce two. New­borns weigh ap­prox­i­mately 200 to 500 grams. Fe­male African tree pan­golins reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity when they reach a length of ap­prox­i­mately 810 mm. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Nowak, 1991)

• Key Reproductive Features
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding season

  Breeding of African tree pangolins can occur at any time of year.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average gestation period

  150 days

Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is known re­gard­ing parental in­vest­ment of African tree pan­golins. Moth­ers pro­vide care for some du­ra­tion of time, as in­fants ride on the back of their mother. For pro­tec­tion, the mother curls into a ball with the in­fant en­com­passed in the mid­dle. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Nowak, 1991)

• Parental Investment
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of African tree pan­golins is cur­rently un­known. One in­di­vid­ual in cap­tiv­ity is still alive after 13 years 6 months of age. (Nowak, 1991)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  13.5 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

African tree pan­golins are di­ur­nal and soli­tary, al­though they some­times pair with a part­ner. They spend time both on the ground and in trees. On the ground, they can ex­hibit both quadrupedal and bipedal lo­co­mo­tion. Their pre­hen­sile tail and claws help them to climb trees. (Doran and All­brook, 1973; Nowak, 1991)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• scansorial
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

Home ranges of African tree pan­golins vary in size and are dif­fer­ent be­tween sexes. Males gen­er­ally in­habit a larger ter­ri­tory than fe­males. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Sinsin, 2008)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

African tree pan­golins have poor vi­sion, but they have an acute sense of smell. They can se­crete pun­gent fluid from glands lo­cated near their anus. The use of this se­cre­tion is as yet un­known. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Doran and All­brook, 1973; Rahm, 1956)

• Communication Channels
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

African tree pan­golins are in­sec­tiv­o­rous, spe­cial­iz­ing on (ants and ter­mites) as well as soft bod­ied in­ver­te­brates. Their tongue and face are well adapted to this in­sec­tivory; their elon­gated snout houses a mus­cu­lar tongue that can be ex­tended up to a third of their body length. They use their claws on their fore­limbs to open an in­sect mound, and their tongue quickly darts in and out of the mound, col­lect­ing in­sects. African tree pan­golins drink water in a sim­i­lar man­ner. (Doran and All­brook, 1973)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

Pre­da­tion

As a ju­ve­nile, in­fant African tree pan­golins rely on the pro­tec­tive curl­ing of their moth­ers around them to avoid pre­da­tion. As an adult, they em­ploy a sim­i­lar strat­egy of curl­ing up. They have also been known to es­cape into water to avoid preda­tors. Preda­tors in­clude African golden cats and other fe­lids. Hu­mans also fre­quently hunt African tree pan­golins. (Nowak, 1991; Rahm, 1956)

• Known Predators

  • African golden cats (Profelis aurata)
  • humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

African tree pan­golins eat a con­sid­er­able amount of in­sects in­clud­ing ants and ter­mites, and they also serve as prey to many fe­lids. They act as host to ticks of the genus Am­bly­omma. (An­der­son, et al., 1967)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

African tree pan­golins are hunted for their meat and scales. The scales are used to make boots and shoes and are also used as in­dige­nous or­na­ments and in med­i­cines. (An­der­son, et al., 1967; Nowak, 1991)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• source of medicine or drug

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no ad­verse ef­fects of African tree pan­golins on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

African tree pan­golins are listed as near threat­ened by the IUCN and on Ap­pen­dix II by CITES. They vary in num­ber re­gion­ally, though over­all num­bers are de­creas­ing. They are pro­tected by many local gov­ern­ments, but in­dige­nous groups still hunt them for their meat and scales. (Sinsin, 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

Other Com­ments

The fos­sil record does not clearly elu­ci­date a phy­logeny for African tree pan­golins, Manis tri­cus­pis, or the other mem­bers of the Order Pholi­dota. Tra­di­tion­ally, tax­on­o­mists thought they shared a close evo­lu­tion­ary affin­ity with the mem­bers of the Order Cin­gu­lata, but this was due to su­per­fi­cial mor­pho­log­i­cal sim­i­lar­i­ties most likely due to con­ver­gence. Mol­e­c­u­lar work does not show a close re­la­tion­ship. It is be­lieved that the Pholi­dotes are an old group that split at the early onset of mam­malian evo­lu­tion. (Emry, et al., 1993)

Con­trib­u­tors

James An­drews (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Ore­gon, Stephen Frost (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Ore­gon, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

An­der­son, S., J. Bar­low, J. Jones Jr.. 1967. Re­cent Mam­mals of the World. New York: The Ronald Press Com­pany.

Doran, G., D. All­brook. 1973. The Tongue and As­so­ci­ated Struc­tures in Two Species of African Pan­golins, Manis gi­gan­tea and Manis tri­cus­pis. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 54/4: 887-899.

Emry, R., M. McKenna, M. No­vacek, K. Rose, F. Sza­lay. 1993. Mam­mal Phy­logeny. New York: Springer-Ver­lag.

Jones, C. 1973. Body Tem­per­a­ture of Manis Gi­gan­tea and Manis tri­cus­pis. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 54/1: 263-266.

Nowak, R. 1991. Walker's Mam­mals of the World 5th Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Rahm, U. 1956. Notes on Pan­golins of the Ivory Coast. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 37/4: 531-537.

Sinsin, B. 2008. Ecol­ogy and eth­no­zo­ol­ogy of the three-cusped pan­golin Manis tri­cus­pis (Mam­malia, Pholi­dota) in the Lama For­est Re­serve. Mam­malia, 72/3: 198-202.

Sodeinde, O., A. Ade­fuke, O. Ba­lo­gun. 2002. Mor­pho­me­t­ric Analy­sis of Manis Tri­cus­pis (Pholi­dota-mom­malia) from South-West­ern Nige­ria. Global Jour­nal of Pure and Ap­plied Sci­ences, 8/1: 7-14.