Formosan pangolin
In Episode 2 of Big Little Journeys a Taiwanese pangolin, travels through a land of giants to seek a mate in a protected forest.
Location: Taiwan
In Taiwan, a Formosan pangolin travels through a land of giants, including a bamboo forest alight with fireflies and an olive plantation, to discover a protected forest and a mate. His species is critically endangered and so he must travel far to find another.
Journey distance: 5 miles
Destination: A protected forest where Pangolins are making a comeback. 20% of Taiwan is protected for wildlife, and is home to the world's densest population of pangolins, as many as 13 in a square kilometre.
Weight & Size: 5 kg and the size of a pineapple
Food: He uses a sticky 40 cm long tongue to hoover up 80,000 ants and termites a day.
Threats:
- Humans - every year around the world 300,000 pangolins are poached for their scales and meat.
- In Taiwan the greatest threats for a pangolin are traffic and feral dogs.
- He must also keep an eye out for giant predators like cobra and moon bear.
Superpowers:
- Formidable armour with scales made from the same material as buffalo horn (and human fingernails).
- Sense of smell. His nose is fine tuned to detect female pheromones and food.
- 3 inch long claws and powerful chest muscles enable him to scale huge trees.
- Pangolins are landscape engineers. A single adult can dig thousands of holes every year, creating new homes for many other animals such as gem faced civet and tortoise.
