Range and distribution The African pangolin species are native to 15 African countries dispersed throughout southern, central, and east Africa. S. temminckii is the only species found in southern and eastern Africa. It prefers savannah woodland with moderate amounts of scrub at low elevations. Behavior and social organization Little is known about the pangolin, as it is difficult to study in the wild. Pangolins are solitary animals and only interact for mating. They dig and live in deep burrows made of semispherical chambers. These burrows are large enough for humans to crawl into and stand up. Although it is capable of digging its own burrow, the ground pangolin prefers to occupy those abandoned by warthogs or aardvarks or to lie in dense vegetation, making it even more difficult to observe. African pangolins such as the ground pangolin prefer burrows, while Asian pangolins sleep in hollows and forks of trees and logs. They are nocturnal animals. They mark their territory with urine, secretions, and by scattering their feces. When threatened, their defense mechanism is to curl into a ball with their scales outward, hiss and puff, and lash out with their sharp-edged tails. The scales on the tails are capable of a cutting action to inflict serious wounds. Pangolins are also capable of emitting noxious acid from glands near the anus, similar to a skunk, to ward off predators. The ground pangolin's main predators are leopards, hyenas, and humans. Pangolins roll in herbivore dung. Young pangolins ride on the base of their mothers' tails and slip under the mother when she curls up for protection. Diet The ground pangolin is wholly myrmecophagous, meaning that they only feed on ants and termites. In fact, they demonstrate prey selectivity, only eating specific ant and termite species rather than foraging on the most abundant species. They have been observed exposing entire subterranean nests of a certain species of termites without eating any, preferring to find their species of choice. Their determination of suitable prey does not seem to be based on the size of the species alone, but likely also depends on the chemical and mechanical defenses of each species. Even in arid environments, ground pangolins remain selective in their dietary habits with regard to prey species and only prey on a small subset of available ant and termite species. Reproduction and lifecycle The lifespan of the pangolin is unknown, but the observed lifespan