The Indian pangolin has been recorded in various forest types, including Sri Lankan
rainforest
and
plains to
middle hill levels. It inhabits grasslands and secondary forests, and is well adapted to dry areas
and
desert
regions,
but prefers more barren, hilly regions. In Sri Lanka, it was sighted at an elevation of 1,100 m,
and in the Nilgiri mountains at 2,300 m. It prefers soft and semi-sandy soil conditions suitable
for digging burrows.
The Chinese pangolin is native to southern Nepal, northeast India, Bhutan, Bangladesh,
Myanmar,
northern
Indochina, southern China including the island of Hainan and most of Taiwan. It has been recorded up
to
an
elevation of
3,000 m. It formerly ranged throughout provinces south of the Yangtze River, as well as north of the
Yangtze
River in
southern Sichuan, northeast Chongqing, northwest Hubei and southwest Henan Provinces. Currently,
confirmed
populations in
mainland China are known in Yunnan, Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Chongqing, Fujian, Jiangxi,
Zhejiang
and
Anhui provinces.
It inhabits primary and secondary tropical forests, bamboo forests, limestone forests, broadleaf
forests,
coniferous forests, agricultural fields and grasslands.
The Sunda pangolin is native to Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia,
Laos,
Malaysia,
Singapore, Vietnam, and the islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra and the Lesser Sunda Islands. It
prefers
forested
primary, secondary
and scrub forest habitats, but also lives in rubber and palm oil plantations. It is largely
arboreal.
The Philippine pangolin is endemic to the Palawan province of the Philippines.
Its habitat includes primary and secondary forests, as well as surrounding grasslands.
Native to parts of western and central Africa, the long-tailed pangolin has been found
as
far
west
and north as
Senegal, across the continent to Uganda, and south into Angola. They are found in areas such as the
Congo
Basin
and
Guinean forests. A distinct gap in populations has been observed starting in southwest Ghana, with
no
record
of
individuals found
through to western Nigeria.
Long-tailed pangolins are found in moist, tropical riverine and swamp forest
environments,
but
have
been
observed in altered forests (Bush), and agricultural areas of former lowland rain forests. They are
almost
exclusively
arboreal, spending the majority of their time in the canopy region. They prefer to live in the
interior
part
of
the
forests, avoiding the outermost edges. They are capable swimmers, and are usually found near water.
The tree 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 tree 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 giant pangolin inhabits many countries, with the largest concentration in Uganda,
Tanzania.
It is found mainly in the savanna, rainforest, and forest, inhabiting areas with large termite
populations
and
available water. A small number of recorded sightings have occurred in western Kenya within the East
African
montane forests,
the first being reported in 1971, with subsequent sightings being made in 2018. One of these
sightings
took
place at 2,466 metres above sea level, the highest altitude the species has been recorded at.
The ground pangolin species are native to 15 African countries dispersed throughout
southern,
central, and east
Africa. Smutsia temminckii is the only species found in southern and eastern Africa. It prefers
savannah
woodland with
moderate amounts of scrub at low elevations.
