Shuffling gait, no teeth, poor eyesight - and he's not even 20.
This here is the Pangolin. It mildly resembles an anteater. Pangolins walk waddle on two hind legs, using its tail for counterbalance – T-Rex style. It’s slow and hilarious. Lest you come across one, it’s only defense is to curl up into an armored ball and wait.
Though Pangolins are aggressively hunted for illegal trade in Asia, in the wild it is the hunter. It ploughs through ant and termite nests with massive claws then slurps up the goods. How? With a sticky, long tongue – the longest of any animal, relative to body size. It is so absurdly long that the tongue itself is attached near the pelvis and last pair of ribs. That’s damn creepy.
Mmm. Yummy.
Photos via Nigel Dennis and Biodiversity Explorer