The long-tailed pangolin is completely arboreal, spending the day in hollow trees and seeking ant nests by scent at night.

Life span
Unknown, but one pangolin has lived 13 years in captivity.

Statistics
30-35cm long, with a tail of 55-65cm.

Physical Description
A small species of pangolin, with short legs and covered in dark brown overlapping scales making it look like a pinecone. Its very long tail has a bare patch at the tip to help it hang from trees. The head is small and long-snouted, with small eyes covered with thickened lids. The muzzle is naked and it has small ears, and the belly is covered in sparse dark hairs and dark skin. Each foot has five long, curved claws and the animal has to walk with its weight mostly on its hind legs and its feet curled inwards.

Distribution
Uganda to Senegal and Angola.

Habitat
Forests.

Diet
Ants, and occasionally termites.

Behaviour
Pangolins are shy and mainly solitary, using scent marking around their territories. Long-tailed pangolins spend the day sleeping in a hollow tree stump or excavated termite mound, and come out to forage at night, using scent to find ant nests in the trees. They excavate the nests with their claws and use their long sticky tongues to eat the insects. Long-tailed pangolins rarely descend to the ground, although they can drop into water and are good swimmers.

Reproduction
Little is known about the reproduction of this species. It is thought that they breed year-round and, like other pangolins, give birth to one youngster which is then carried for several months on the mother's tail.

Conservation status
Not thought to be threatened.

History
Fossil pangolins are first found in the Eocene in Europe. In the Messel shales of Germany they are particularly well preserved, showing that their characteristic scales were already developed. Recent DNA analysis has shown them to be bizarre offshoots of the Carnivora - the carnivores such as cats, dogs, bears, hyenas, civets and mongooses.