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I am an animal found on only two continents, who looks like a reptile, acts like a mammal, and loves to eat ants and termites! What am I? Meet the “pangolin”—an endangered animal prized in some cultures for its medicinal qualities. Never heard of a pangolin? That’s not surprising since pangolins are loners and difficult to locate during daylight hours. An ancient animal that has been around a long time, pangolins have developed structures that aid in survival. Their long pointy snouts help locate food in hard-to-reach places. With a skunk-like stinky spray and hard scales for protection, pangolins are well-armored against jungle predators, but not so well-protected from people who’ve hunted them into near extinction! If you enjoy learning about unique members of the animal kingdom, you’ll love getting to know the pangolin and understand why it needs human protection—in addition to its own armor—to survive.
In this issue young zoologists will:
- read informational text about the pangolin
- learn pangolin structures that aid in survival
- understand pangolin habits and instincts
- use the newspaper to locate and alphabetize pangolin adjectives
- understand how human actions can result in animal extinction
- conduct an “ant” census count
- compare mammals to reptiles using words found in the news
- use a Venn diagram to compare sets of animals
- write creatively and descriptively about a favorite animal
6 page PDF
