Endangered
Giant pangolin
Smutsia gigantea
Giant pangolin is a mammal in the family Manidae (order Pholidota) — Smutsia gigantea, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Like all pangolins, the species is armored with large, brown to reddish-brown scales formed from keratin. The giant pangolin has a long snout, a long, thick tail, and large front claws.
While its average mass has not been measured, one specimen was found to weigh between 30 kg (66 lb) and 40 kg (88 lb). Males are larger than females, with male body lengths about 137 cm (54 in) to 180 cm (71 in) and females about 112.5 cm (44.3 in) to 136.5 cm (53.7 in).
Range and habitat
The giant pangolin inhabits many countries, with the largest concentration in Uganda, Tanzania. It is found mainly in the savanna, rainforest, and forest, inhabiting areas with large termite populations and available water. It does not inhabit high-altitude areas.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The giant pangolin, like other pangolins, is nocturnal, that makes observation difficult. It is also usually solitary, although in one case an adult was seen in a burrow with a juvenile.
Its diet mainly consists of ants and termites, that it finds by tearing open anthills and termite nests, both subterranean and mound-type.
In crisis
The giant pangolin is threatened by habitat destruction and deforestation, and hunting for the bushmeat trade. In 2023 a giant pangolin was spotted in Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal, where the species had not been seen since 1999 and was considered extinct in the area.
Giant pangolin is 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 Giant pangolin, Wikidata item Q20085878. 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.
