1. Introduction

Pangolins are toothless mammals, body covered with overlapping scales except the ventral surface. They roll up into a ball when threatened. This is a unique selfdefense against predators. Though pangolins appear dangerous, they are innocent and shy creatures. They feed on ants and termites using their long protrusible tongue. They have a prehensile tail.

Globally, eight species of pangolin are found in continents of Asia (Manis crassicaudata, Manis pentadactyla, Manis javanica and Manis culionensis) and Africa (Phataginus tricuspis, Phataginus tetradactyla, Smutsia gigantean and Smutsia temminckii). Out of them, only two species occur in India i.e., Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). Indian pangolin is found throughout India except upper Himalayas, extreme Northeast and some part of Thar desert, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The distribution of Indian and Chinese pangolin intersects at Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Northern Bihar and some parts of North Eastern states. Both species are protected in India as Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and included in Appendix I of CITES. Indian pangolins are stated Endangered in IUCN Red list of threatened species.

The key morphological differences between Indian and Chinese pangolins are, (i) Indian pangolin exhibits relatively large scales, which are broad, rhombic shape and pale brownish to yellowish in color whereas Chinese pangolin scales are relatively smaller and darker in coloration, (ii) Indian pangolins have 11–13 longitudinal rows of scales along their back compared to 15–18 rows seen in Chinese pangolin, (iii) A terminal scale is present only on the ventral tail tip of Indian pangolin, but absent in Chinese pangolin.

Fig 1. Pangolins found in India, a. Indian pangolin (left), b. Chinese pangolin (right).