Who can resist a cute soft toy pangolin?! Now you can make your own 🙂

Pangolins are the only mammals with scales.  Their scales are made of keratin just like our nails and account for about 20% of the animals weight. Sadly, they are also one of the reasons why so many pangolins are killed. The scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine. All eight species of pangolin are now threatened with extinction because of illegal trade.

Due to their varying sizes, different species of pangolin are likely to have different numbers of scales. Apparently sunda pangolins (from which Philippine pangolins were only recently separated) have approximately 900 scales.

Making my felt pangolin, I lost count at 120 scales. I just kept making more as I needed them but I’m glad I didn’t have to cut out 900!

Click on the picture below to open a printable pdf:

NB. Unless you sew the scales on incredibly well, it’s not suitable for small children. No-one should be eating pangolin scales even it the are made with felt!