Cape Pangolin

The Cape pangolin (Manis temmincki) is a strange looking creature that is covered with sharp plates. These plates are made from tightly packed hair and used to protect the pangolin from predators. When threatened, the pangolin roles into a ball, protecting it's soft belly and face. 

The pangolin's plates are the animals only source of protection. It has no teeth and it's large claws are used to look for food that consists of ants, termites, and beetle grubs. Those claws can easily break through a termite mound or remove tree bark, while it's long 16 inch sticky tongue collects its meal.

Pangolin's lack scales on their face. However, their skin is very tough and thick and protects it from getting bit and stung by ants and termites. It can also close it's nose and ear openings so things can't crawl up there.

Although the Cape pangolin is only found in Africa, there are seven species of pangolin found around the world. The giant pangolin, small-scaled tree pangolin, and the long tailed pangolin are also found in Africa. The Chinese pangolin, Indian pangolin, and the Malayan pangolin are found in Asia. 

Pangolin's are considered Endangered due to habitat loss and over hunting. They have their own holiday, World Pangolin Day, which is celebrated on the third Saturday of February. On this day, people try to teach people about this usually unheard of animal and to bring awareness of their endangered status and how to improve it.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen.

Fact #9

Tiger's have stripes to help them camouflage. You may think that being a large orange cat in the jungle would make a tiger quite noticeable, but it's quite the opposite. The black stripes against the orange fur are similar to those produced by leaves when the sun shines through them. This makes it hard for prey animals to distinguish where the tiger is and which end, the tail or the more deadly front end, is facing them.

Fact #8

Binturongs (also known as a bear-cat) smell like buttered popcorn because of scent glands located in their tails. As it walks, it drags its long bushy tail on the ground, leaving it's scent behind for other binturongs. I was fortunate enough to meet one of these guys face to face, and they smell exactly like movie theater popcorn.

A Sloth of Bears

A group of bears is known as a sloth. Most bears do not commonly meet in groups naturally except when it comes to food or mating because most species are very territorial. 

Pictured here is a bunch of species of bear including, starting from the back, a North American black bear, and a polar bear. The three in front, starting on the left, is a sloth bear, a panda bear, and a sun bear. 

Duck-billed Platypus

The duck-billed platypus, who looks like a mash up of a duck and a beaver, lives in eastern Australia. This creature is not only known for it's looks, but is also known to be one of the three mammals that lays eggs. The other two species are the short and long nosed echidna, also found in Australia. These three species are the only animals that are monotremes (mammals that lay eggs). 

The platypus lays at least 2 soft leathery eggs in a river bank burrow that hatch within 11 days. The babies are born blind, deaf, and hairless, much like a baby bird. However, like mammals, they are nourished by their mother's milk. Unlike most mammals who usually have some kind of nipple for their babies to latch on to, the platypus has milk glands that ooze milk from it's skin. The babies just lap it up. Unlike echidnas and a bunch of other animals that live in Australia, the platypus does not have a pouch or flap it can carry it's young in and must enter the water it lives by to search for food. Platypus moms will cover the entrance of their nests with mud before they leave.

When it enters the water, the platypus closes it's eyes and ears, making it deaf and blind in the water. To hunt, it waves it's bill back and fourth. It's bill is covered in pores that contain two types of sensory cells. One detects a slight touch of an object while another picks up electrical charges that is given off. When it finds something tasty, it stores it in pouches in it's cheeks where it will eat it later on land or floating on top of the water. Platypus have no teeth, so much like a duck, it grinds it's prey up with a hard pallet on the top of it's mouth.

Not only is the platypus on of the few monotremes, it also one of the few mammals that are venomous. Males have a barb on the back of their ankles that has enough venom to kill a dog!

Source: The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen.

The Life of Mammals, 2002, David Attenborough.  

Fact # 7

Just as no human possess the same finger print, every dog's nose is different.

Naked Mole-Rat

The naked mole-rat (heterocephalus glaber) is found in East Africa, ranging from Ethiopia and Somalia to northern Kenya. They are small rodents that are around 5-6 inches long and weigh only a few ounces. They may be small, but they make up in sheer numbers. Naked mole-rats live in large colonies of extended families, run by a single queen. Similar to the way termites live, the mole-rat queen is a lot larger and is the only female in the colony that is able to breed. 

Naked mole-rats are well adapted to living underground. Having no hair means that they won't get dirty when they dig and allows them to slide past each other in their close quarters. Unlike what their name implies, naked mole-rats are not moles, they are a totally different specie, and do not have the large burrowing claws like a regular mole. To make tunnels, they use their teeth. Like all rodents, they have bucked incisors that grow constantly. However, the mole-rat's teeth grow outside of their mouths. This allows them to close their mouths while they are burrowing so they don't get a mouthful of dirt. 

Living in such close proximity to each other can mean it can get rather stuffy in a mole-rat colony and hard to breath. However, this does not bother them. Unlike other animals, mole-rats can survive for long periods of time with little oxygen. When we breath (the process is called respiration), we bring oxygen to our blood that brings it to the rest of our body, and more importantly, our brains. If our bodies go for a long time with out oxygen, we can suffer brain damage or even death. 

Not only can mole-rats survive in their low oxygen environment, but they can also survive in highly acidic soil and toxic metals with out a problem, as well as feeling no pain. They also never get cancer and age differently than other rodents for it's size. Normal rodents that are the same size as the naked mole-rat live around 2 to 4 years. Mole rats can live up to 30 years and show no sign of aging. Our bodies are made out of individual cells that have a specific purpose. As we grow, our cells replicate to replace cells that have died or been damaged. As cells replicate, some pieces don't replicate correctly, break down, or stop working. This causes aging. Even at 30 years old, a mole-rat's cells still look fresh and new, like they don't age at all! Mole rat's are like little super heroes!

Source:  The Encyclopedia of Animals, 2006, Per Christiansen. 
Underground Supermodels: What can a twenty something naked mole-rat tell us about fighting pain, cancer, and aging?, Thomas Park and Rochelle Duffenstein, The Scientist Magazine (June 2012), http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32136/title/Underground-Supermodels/(Accessed Jan. 31, 2014).