Tree Pangolin

Phataginus tricuspis is a relatively small pangolin. The combined head and body length is 33–43 cm (13–17 in). The tail is 49–62 cm (19–24 in). Each dark brown to brownish yellow scale has three points, to which the specific name tricuspis refers. (The Greek meaning of Phataginus tricuspis is "number by order"),These scales cover the whole body besides the face, underbelly, and insides of the legs. The scales are made of keratin, as are human fingernails, and are anchored at the base to the pangolin's skin. The head is small, and the snout is elongated. The feet are short, and each foot has five long curved claws.

The white-bellied pangolin ranges from Guinea through Sierra Leone and much of West Africa to Central Africa as far east as extreme southwestern Kenya and northwestern Tanzania. To the south, it extends to northern Angola and northwestern Zambia. It has been found on the Atlantic island of Bioko, but no records confirm a presence in Senegal, Gambia, or Guinea-Bissau. The white-bellied pangolin is semiarboreal and generally nocturnal. It is found in lowland tropical moist forests (both primary and secondary), as well as savanna/forest mosaics. It probably adapts to some degree to habitat modification, such as commercial plantations, as it favours cultivated and fallow land where it is not aggressively hunted (e.g., abandoned or little-used oil palm trees in secondary growth).

The white-bellied pangolin can walk on all fours or on its hind legs using its prehensile tail for balance. It can climb up trees in the absence of branches. When walking on all fours, it walks on its front knuckles with its claws tucked underneath to protect them from wearing down. Its anal scent glands disperse a foul secretion much like a skunk when threatened. It has a well-developed sense of smell, but as a nocturnal animal, it has poor eyesight. Instead of teeth, it has a gizzard-like stomach full of stones and sand it ingests. The white-bellied pangolin in Africa fills its stomach with air before entering water to aid in buoyancy for well-developed swimming. The white-bellied pangolin has many adaptations. When threatened, it rolls up into a ball ("volvation"), protecting itself with its thick skin and scales. Its scales cover its entire body except for the belly, snout, eyes, ears, and undersides of the limbs. When a mother with young is threatened, she rolls up around the young, which also rolls into a ball. While in a ball, she can extend her scales and make a cutting action by using muscles to move the scales back and forth. She makes an aggressive huff noise when threatened, but that is the extent of her noise-making.