Cabinet of Curiosity: How I Met the Rare Pangolin

When I was 14 (in 2011), my family traveled to Southern Africa and we saw some pretty amazing things!

This included the pangolin: a rare animal that is like an anteater with scales. We were told that in Greater Kruger National Park, a guide will see one every four years.

Luckily, on our last day at the park, we had the pleasure of meeting one!

Some Fun Facts

No one knows how long they live for.
The pangolin is the world’s most hunted animal.
A pangolin’s tongue can be longer than its body.
They are the only mammal covered in scales.
They may be more closely related to hyenas, bears, and wolves (in the Carnivora order) than to anteaters, sloths, and armadillos (in the Xenarthra order).
February 18th is World Pangolin Day, which was also the day I began writing this presentation.

And while I had planned on the Pangolin being the center of my presentation … I began to think about how strange it was that I both got to see the Pangolin (at all) and that I researched Pangolins on World Pangolin Day.

Statistically…

The likelihood a guide will see a Pangolin is rumoured to happen once in four years. (For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that all guides will see a Pangolin once every four years)
My family was in Greater Kruger National Park for approx. 3 days.
So, the probability of me meeting a Pangolin would be…

(3 days visiting) x (1 in 1460 days) = .0021 = 0.21%

And the likelihood I would look up information about Pangolins on World Pangolin Day is…

1 in 365 days = .0027 = 0.27%

And for both of these things to happen, the likelihood is:

(.0021)(.0027) = 0.000006 or 0.0006%

But perhaps there was a greater force than chance uniting us together… like a hidden, magical quality?

Perhaps a magical, hidden quality (related to the Carnivora order) has linked the Pangolin and me together …. Or perhaps it was just chance (0.0006%)?

The world may never know!