As well as being extremely tough, the scales are very sharp and pangolins are able to swing their long tails around, using them as a jagged club. These hard pieces of keratin even protect against desiccation, or water loss, and their brown color helps pangolins blend in with the various environments in which they live.

How do pangolins protect themselves?

They are the only mammals wholly-covered in scales and they use those scales to protect themselves from predators in the wild. If under threat, a pangolin will immediately curl into a tight ball and will use their sharp-scaled tails to defend themselves.

What do pangolins get eaten by?

Typically the only predators that are able to eat pangolins are large cats like leopards, tigers and lions, but other powerful animals like hyenas can also sometimes break through.