Why Do Pangolins Have a 20-Day Mating Period?
Author: Stone Lan
For animals with sexual reproduction, mating is the only way for them to reproduce offspring, which is essentially the important activity of fertilization through the combination of reproductive cells inside the body. From the type of mating, there are several main types such as return mating, positive mating, self-mating, cross-mating, test cross, and reverse cross.
Although the mating way of the Pangolin is not so complex, usually it is single- pregnant, but when it is in estrus, it has a continuous 20-day period of mating. As is well-known, the wild Pangolin species is now on the verge of extinction. And the Pangolins that originally did not belong to the dining table have been hunted to extinction by some humans.
Undeniably, although mating is an instinct for animals, the biggest significance of this behavior is to produce offspring, thus occupying a place in the natural world. For most animals, they will regularly enter estrus after sexual development maturity, accompanied by a series of subtle changes in the body structure.
Regarding the length of mating time, there are differences in population and individual, which is not related to the size of the animal's body type, and the number of offspring that can be gestated after mating depends on the specific situation. In general, when the Pangolin's weight reaches 1.8 kilograms, it can be mated; if we do not consider the ovulation cycle, there is no estrus for Pangolins living in the tropics, because their mating time covers any time of the year.
However, Pangolins living in the subtropical region are different. The estrus months of 5, 6, and 7 in a year are their estrus periods, and the female Pangolin estrus cycle is 11 to 16 days, and this cycle lasts 2 to 5 times. Simply put, once a male Pangolin and a female Pangolin are paired successfully, their mating frequency will reach more than once a day and continue for 20 days or more.
From the perspective of survival ability, although the Pangolin is one of the land animals, they also have the ability to swim in the water and climb trees. Their habitats are generally in the soil, the diameter of the caves is always 20 to 30 cm and the depth reaches 2 to 4 meters. Pangolins that often come out to forage for food in the evening mainly eat ants and termites.
The reason why we ordinary people can hardly see Pangolins is because most of them live in deciduous forests. During the day, Pangolins hide their tracks by plugging up their cave entrances with soil. If we look at the survival skills, cave settlement, nocturnal habits, and main food of Pangolins, their population numbers should not be as bad as the current situation on the verge of extinction.
Pangolin scales were originally weapons to protect themselves, but inadvertently became a reason for some humans to hunt. Besides the mating period, Pangolins often live a solitary life. Many people do not know that the vision of Chinese Pangolins is particularly poor, but fortunately, they can find prey by distinguishing odors. Moreover, unlike other Pangolins, Chinese Pangolins can adapt to tropical forests, even survive in bamboo forests and grasslands.
Claws are the weapons to break into termite mounds, and the tongue is the tool to swallow insects into the stomach. Without teeth, Pangolins can only rely on the special structure of their stomachs to grind food, and closing their ears and mouths is an effective way to prevent insects from biting them. Originally, Pangolin species once had three genera and eight species, the distribution area involved more than 100 countries, but today, after the hunting of some people, it is difficult to find their traces.
