Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Save the Pangolins!

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Google choose this Valentine’s day to help raise awareness to pangolins.  In previous years, the Google doodle has been the classic “unlikely couples” and the double “o” in “Google” serves a good purpose for a cute couple to be made out of. However, this year was different. The cute couples were pangolins, and they were untied after completing the interactive game. However, there was a hidden purpose behind choosing the mammal, a pangolin, for the doodle. First of all, what is a pangolin?

A Pangolin, deriving from the Malay word “penggulin” meaning “something that rolls up”, are also called “scaly anteaters” because of their long sticky tongue. A pangolin’s diet is about the same as an anteaters, termites and ants, making them both insectivorous. Regularly, it would be difficult for an animal to digest something without crunching it up with teeth, but pangolins have adapted. When foraging for their meals, these amazing animals eat small rocks and pebbles. When bugs are eaten, they are smashed against the small rocks in the pangolin’s stomach making the bugs easy to digest.

Pangolins are amazing creatures not only because of their ability to function without teeth, but also because of their Keratin scales. Pangolins are the only mammal with scales, and this characteristic makes up for not having teeth. When a pangolin is attacked it rolls into a tight ball, protected by its hard shell. Their sharp scales overlap and the head is protected by its broad tale providing more protection from predators. They also emit a stinky smelling, non-toxic odor, like skunks.

Once the predator gives up, the pangolin unrolls. While there are so many more unique features about pangolins, they are quickly becoming extinct. Pangolins are amazing animals,  but they are fairly unknown and uncommon.  They need help, and awareness is the first step in saving them.

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