Critically Endangered
Philippine pangolin
Manis culionensis
The Philippine pangolin or Palawan pangolin, also locally known as balintong, is a pangolin species endemic to the Palawan province of the Philippines.
Appearance
It is covered in small triangular scales made of keratin everywhere except the underbelly and face, making up at least 20% of its body weight. It regrows new scales when they are lost and always has the same number of scales throughout their lifespan. The scales come in shades of brown, yellow, and olive, making for adequate camouflage at night.
It weighs 2.2 to 7.3 lb (1 to 3 kg).
Range and habitat
The Philippine pangolin or Palawan pangolin, also locally known as balintong, is a pangolin species endemic to the Palawan province of the Philippines. Its habitat includes primary and secondary forests, as well as surrounding grasslands. This species is moderately common within its limited range, but is at risk due to heavy hunting because of its valued scales and meat.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The Philippine pangolin is a myrmecophage, so has a diet consisting mainly of but not limited to termites and ants. The pangolin will only ever eat a portion of a termite or ant colony, leaving most of the mound/hill intact for the colony to regrow and act as a continuous food source for the pangolin later down the line.
The Philippine pangolin is nocturnal and reclusive, tending towards being solitary or in pairs. Like most pangolins, Philippine pangolins mate in the spring.
In crisis
It is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, and Critically Endangered by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD). In 2016, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listed the animal as protected under Appendix I (meaning commercial international trade was prohibited) due to how much international trade influenced pangolin hunting.
Philippine pangolin is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Philippine pangolin, Wikidata item Q1339663. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
