With the constant threat of predation shaping the course of evolution, animals have developed many different kinds of defensive mechanisms and behaviors to help them stay safe and sound out in the wild.
Pangolins use their scales, formed from keratin, which form a strong shell around them when they curl up into a ball, but when animals like this hyena think creatively, defenses like these aren’t always enough.
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Jan Kriel caught this test of the pangolin’s scales on camera near the Jock Safari Lodge, and sent the footage to Latest Sightings. Would the pangolin’s scales keep it safe? Or would the hungry hyena figure out a way through them?
Caught In A Deadly Dilemma
The hyena had already managed to capture the pangolin in its strong jaws before the footage began, but it hadn’t yet found a way to break through its strong armor to get to the meat inside.
For the pangolin, its primary defense mechanism was holding up, although the hyena could carry the smaller animal without much effort, it couldn’t break through the pangolin’s shell.
But this meant the hyena had the pangolin trapped. For its armor to work it needed to stay curled in a tight ball to give its scales as much coverage as possible, and if it uncurled to try and run away then the hyena would have its opening to attack.
Safe But Not Sound
The pangolin’s only option was to trust in the strength of its armor and hope that the hyena would lose interest and move on to easier prey with less effective defenses.
But this hyena wasn’t quite out of ideas yet. This likely wasn’t the first time it’d attacked a pangolin because in between carrying the little mammal around like a cub the hyena tried to work its teeth into the gap between scales to prise them apart.
It was a game of strength now, a contest between how tightly the pangolin could keep itself rolled into a ball, and how determined the hyena was to break through the protective shell.
Murderous Creativity
Necessity is the mother of invention, and this hyena needed to eat to stay alive. Finding a way through the pangolin’s strong scales was a worthwhile way for this predator to spend its time if it was going to be rewarded with a good meal at the end of it.
Brute force wasn’t going to cut it, for the hyena to figure out a way through the scales would take a bit of creativity alongside its murderous intent. Lifting the pangolin once more, the hyena carried it to a nearby stream, where it drowned the poor creature.
Once the pangolin stopped trying to hold itself tightly into a ball, the hyena had all the time in the world to work its teeth underneath the pesky scales and tear them away.
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A Lot Of Work Left To Do
One by one the hyena pulled away the scales of the pangolin and spat them into the stream. It would take it a while to get through all of them, but it didn’t appear to be in much of a hurry.
The pangolin had lost the contest, despite its impressive scales, and now it was only lunch for the hungry hyena. The loss of this single pangolin could become a bigger deal in the future, as pangolins are considered endangered.