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Manis tricuspis 

Linguistics
Actual scientific name :   Manis tricuspis 
     
Old scientific name :    
     
French name :   Pangolin ŕ écailles tricuspides
     
English name :   Tree Pangolin
     
Vernacular name :  
Nkaka (Kiluba); nkaka (Kisonge); Nsambo (Kitabwa); n-kaka (Kiholoholo); lukaka (Kitshok); nkaka (Kindembo); nkakabuluba (Kikaonde); nkaka (Lunda); nkaka (Kibemba)
 


 

Zoology
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Description :   This species of pangolin is quite small, measuring around 75 cm long.
Body is covered by numerous small, brownish scales that have three points. Underparts covered with whitish hair. Head is small and pointed, tail is long, large and prehensile. No teeth but long and sticky tongue penetrates in nests of insects he feeds on. No external ears. Eyes are small and protected by thick eyelids. Legs are short and powerful. On each foot, there are 5 digits with long and curved claws.  
     
Habitat :   Humid tropical forests and savannah, close to water.
 
     
Behaviour :   Nocturnal. During the day, rest in excavated anthills, tree hollows or burrows. When alarmed, rolls into a tight ball. Has anal glands that secrete a foul-smelling liquid used to mark his territory.
Pangolins are solitary animals. Females are sometimes seen with their young. Females’ territories are smaller than males’ territories and do not overlap. Females therefore rarely meet each other. The larger males’ territories overlap many females’ territories, resulting in male-female meetings.
In captivity, can live for up to 13 years. 
     
Diet :   Feed mainly on ants and on tree termites. Locate they prey by smell. Having no teeth, they require strong stomach muscles to grind the external skeleton (exoskeleton) of their prey. Moreover, they swallow stones and grit to assist this process. 
     
Life history :   After a gestation period of about 150 days, females give birth to a young weighing between 90 and 160 g and covered by pale and soft scales. These get harder in the first few days of life. The young will remain with its mother for about 5 months and often travel on the base of her tail. When alarmed, the youngs roll into a ball in its mother’s belly while she too curls into a ball. 
     
Distribution in Katanga :   view map  
 
 
History, Ethnology, Sociology
Interactions with humans :   None.
 
     
Taboos :   By the luba, healers' diadems are called "Nkaka" and the lozenges that appear on them represent pangolins' scales. 
     
Legends, believes, folklore :   In the ancient Eastern Africa (Tanzania), the arrival of a pangolin in the town of Liwale forecasted misfortune. it forecasted the maji-maji revolt (1905) and the 1914-18 war. To predict the kind of misfortune, the pangolin was caught and then released in front of a series of objects. An arrow, a saucer of water, a saucer of food and a cloth used by women to carry their kids. According to the object the pangolin spanned in its leak, there would be war, drought, famine or epidemic. 
     
Fishing, hunting :   Traditionally by the Bemba, one had to catch the pangolin alive and to bring it to the chief who rewarded the hunter by giving him a goat.  
     
Feeding :   Its meat is consumed.  
     
Breeding, taming :    
     
Uses of skin or other body parts :   Scales are used for the making of many medications. For example, a decoction with which babies' fontanels are soaked to strengthen their skulls.  
  


Warning :

This database was established according to official pieces of work and with the help of famous scientists. However, there might be some errors.

The vernacular names were collected in the field and in the colonial literature from the first part of the 20th century. The monks who established the first dictionaries were not necessarily informed naturalists. Therefore, errors must have been committed.

We invite everyone who could help us to improve this working tool to contact us in order to correct us and share her/his knowledge with us.



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