A pangolin looks almost impossible to attack. Its body is covered in overlapping keratin scales, giving it one of the strangest natural defenses found among mammals. When threatened, a pangolin can curl into a tight ball, creating an armored shield that protects most of its vulnerable body.
But in this remarkable encounter, a hungry hyena found a way to overcome that defense.
The footage, filmed by Jan Kriel near Jock Safari Lodge, shows a hyena carrying a pangolin in its powerful jaws and repeatedly trying to find a weakness between the animal’s scales. The encounter demonstrates why the pangolin’s unique armor is so effective against many predators—and also how determined predators can sometimes find ways around even extraordinary defenses.
The hyena eventually carried the pangolin to a nearby stream. What happened next made this already unusual wildlife encounter even more remarkable.
A Hyena Finds an Unusual Meal
The encounter had already begun before the camera started recording.
According to the original Latest Sightings report, the hyena had already captured the pangolin and was carrying it in its jaws.
But there was a problem.
The predator had caught its prey without being able to reach the meat underneath.
The pangolin’s armor was doing exactly what evolution had designed it to do.
The Pangolin’s Scales Are Its Armor
Pangolins are the only mammals whose bodies are covered in large protective scales rather than fur. These scales are made from keratin, the same basic material found in human fingernails and hair.
The scales overlap across the animal’s back, sides and tail.
When a pangolin senses danger, it can curl its body into a compact ball.
That makes it extremely difficult for a predator to reach the softer areas underneath.
This defense has allowed pangolins to survive alongside predators such as hyenas and leopards, which are among their natural predators.
The Pangolin Rolls Into a Ball
The pangolin’s first line of defense was simple.
Curl up.
Once tightly rolled, the animal presented the hyena with a nearly complete shell of scales.
The head disappeared.
The legs disappeared.
The vulnerable belly was hidden.
Only the armored exterior remained exposed.
For many predators, this can make a pangolin a frustrating target.
But the Hyena Wouldn’t Give Up
The hyena could carry the smaller mammal without much difficulty.
It repeatedly picked the pangolin up and moved it around.
But biting through the scales was another matter entirely.
The predator appeared to realize that simply crushing the outside of the animal was not enough.
Instead, it began searching for gaps.
The original report describes the hyena trying to work its teeth between the pangolin’s scales.
That behavior changed the encounter from a straightforward attack into a battle of persistence.
A Battle Between Jaws and Armor
The hyena had extraordinarily powerful jaws.
Pangolins had armor.
Neither defense was immediately decisive.
The hyena needed access to the flesh beneath the scales.
The pangolin needed only to remain curled tightly enough to prevent that access.
It was almost a mechanical problem.
If the pangolin stayed tightly rolled, the hyena struggled to find an opening.
If the pangolin uncurled, the hyena would have access to more vulnerable areas.
Why the Pangolin’s Defense Works
The effectiveness of a pangolin’s armor comes from the way its scales overlap.
Rather than being a flat shell, the scales form a flexible protective covering.
The African Pangolin Working Group explains that African pangolins curl into a tight ball when threatened, leaving predators with very little exposed flesh.
The scales can also provide an additional physical deterrent.
The African Wildlife Foundation notes that pangolins can use their scales defensively through a cutting action when something attempts to get between them.
So attacking a tightly curled pangolin can be a dangerous proposition.
The Hyena Tries Another Approach
The hyena appeared unwilling to abandon the meal.
It continued carrying the pangolin and testing its defenses.
At this stage, the animal was effectively trapped.
The pangolin’s armor was protecting it from direct access.
But the hyena was preventing it from simply walking away.
That created a deadly dilemma.
The pangolin needed its defensive ball to remain safe.
The hyena only needed to find a way to make that defense fail.
A Predator Looks for a Weak Point
The hyena began focusing its teeth around the gaps between the scales.
This is important because the scales do not cover every part of a pangolin’s body.
The underside, parts of the head and the inside of the limbs are not protected in the same way.
A predator that can force the animal open may therefore gain access to vulnerable tissue.
The problem is getting the pangolin to open.
The Pangolin Has Very Few Options
The pangolin could not outrun the hyena.
It could not fight it with claws or teeth.
Its primary strategy was defense.
Curl up.
Protect the soft body.
Wait for the predator to lose interest.
That strategy has obvious strengths.
But it also has a weakness.
A predator that refuses to leave can keep testing the defense.
The Hyena Carries It Toward Water
Eventually, the hyena carried the pangolin toward a nearby stream.
This was the turning point.
The original Latest Sightings report states that the hyena carried the pangolin to the stream and drowned it.
The behavior is difficult to watch, but it also illustrates the predator’s ability to change tactics when its initial approach was unsuccessful.
The scales had prevented the hyena from accessing the pangolin while it was tightly curled.
The hyena found another way to overcome that problem.
The Pangolin’s Armor Had Been Defeated
Once the pangolin stopped maintaining its defensive ball, the hyena could begin working around the scales.
The armor had been highly effective against bites.
But it could not protect the animal indefinitely once it was no longer able to maintain the defensive posture.
This is an important distinction.
The pangolin’s defense was not useless.
It had worked for a significant portion of the encounter.
The problem was that the predator found a way to bypass it.
The Hyena Begins Removing the Scales
The next part of the footage is particularly unusual.
The hyena began pulling scales away from the pangolin’s body.
One by one, the scales were removed and discarded into the stream.
The predator had effectively turned the pangolin’s greatest defense into an obstacle it needed to remove before reaching the food underneath.
It was no longer trying simply to bite through the armor.
It was taking the armor apart.
Why the Scales Are So Difficult to Break
Keratin is a tough structural protein.
It is the same material that forms human hair and fingernails.
But pangolin scales are much more substantial than a fingernail.
They are thick, overlapping structures that cover much of the animal’s body.
The African Wildlife Foundation’s pangolin profile notes that scales can account for around 20 percent of a pangolin’s body weight.
That means the hyena was dealing with a substantial amount of protective material.
A Pangolin Is Not a Reptile
Despite its appearance, the pangolin is a mammal.
Its scales can make it look more like a reptile or even a small dinosaur, but pangolins belong to their own mammalian order, Pholidota.
There are currently eight recognized pangolin species worldwide—four in Africa and four in Asia.
This unusual evolutionary history makes encounters like this particularly fascinating.
The Ground Pangolin
The exact footage is consistent with the African pangolin context described by the original report and supporting literature.
One African species, the Temminck’s pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), is found across parts of southern and eastern Africa and is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.
Ground pangolins inhabit savannas, woodlands and other suitable African habitats.
They are mostly nocturnal and feed primarily on ants and termites.
Pangolins Have No Teeth
Another unusual feature of pangolins is their mouth.
They do not have conventional teeth.
Instead, they use an extremely long, sticky tongue to collect ants and termites.
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, pangolins can use their long tongues to reach insects inside nests and mounds.
Their entire body is therefore specialized around a very different lifestyle from that of most mammals.
A Nocturnal Animal in a Dangerous World
Pangolins are generally active at night.
During the day, they may rest in burrows or other sheltered locations.
That lifestyle helps them avoid some threats.
But predators still find them.
Hyenas, leopards and other carnivores can prey on pangolins when opportunities arise.
The encounter in this video shows just how dangerous those encounters can become.
Why Hyenas Are Such Effective Predators
Spotted hyenas are often misunderstood as animals that simply wait for other predators to make kills.
In reality, they are capable hunters with powerful jaws and considerable problem-solving ability.
Their jaws allow them to crush and process materials that many predators cannot.
That physical strength was particularly relevant here.
The hyena could not simply bite through the pangolin’s scales, but it had the strength to carry the animal and continue manipulating it.
Persistence Can Be a Hunting Advantage
The encounter also demonstrates another characteristic of successful predators: persistence.
The hyena tried one approach.
It didn’t work.
It tried another.
Still no access.
It continued carrying the pangolin.
Then it changed the circumstances.
Finally, once the pangolin’s defensive behavior could no longer continue, the hyena was able to begin removing the scales.
The sequence shows how a predator can adjust when its first attack does not produce the expected result.
The Pangolin’s Defense Was Remarkably Effective
It is easy to focus on the final outcome and conclude that the pangolin’s armor failed.
But that misses something important.
The armor worked.
The hyena had already captured the pangolin, yet it could not immediately get through the scales.
That is exactly what the defense is designed to accomplish.
A defensive adaptation does not need to make an animal completely invulnerable.
It only needs to improve its chances of surviving an attack.
The Problem With Being Curled Up
The pangolin’s defensive ball has one major limitation.
It is defensive rather than mobile.
Once the animal is tightly curled, it cannot simply sprint away.
The predator can potentially pick it up and carry it.
That appears to have happened here.
The pangolin became an armored package that the hyena could carry around while searching for a solution.
The Hyena Could Carry the Pangolin Easily
The size difference between the two animals was important.
The hyena was large enough to pick up and carry the pangolin.
That prevented the smaller animal from escaping by simply moving away.
The pangolin’s defense therefore became almost entirely dependent on the strength of its armor.
When Armor Meets Crushing Power
The encounter represents an unusual evolutionary arms race.
The pangolin has evolved scales to protect itself from predators.
Predators have evolved powerful jaws and hunting strategies to capture prey.
When these two adaptations meet, the outcome depends on which advantage is more effective under the circumstances.
The pangolin’s armor initially won.
The hyena eventually found another solution.
The Stream Changed the Outcome
The nearby stream became an important part of the encounter.
The hyena used the water to overcome the pangolin’s defensive strategy, according to the original report.
That means the surrounding environment was not simply a background to the encounter.
It became part of the predator’s strategy.
Water, terrain and physical objects can all influence how wildlife interactions unfold.
The Hyena’s Strategy Was Not Instant
The predator did not immediately discover a solution.
It spent time testing the pangolin’s armor.
That patience matters.
Wild predators operate under an energy economy.
Every minute spent pursuing or manipulating prey costs energy.
But if the potential reward is large enough, persistence can pay off.
For this hyena, the pangolin eventually became a meal worth the effort.
One Scale at a Time
After the pangolin was no longer able to maintain its defensive posture, the hyena began removing the scales.
The original report describes the hyena pulling them away one by one and spitting them into the stream.
This process would have taken considerable effort.
The predator was essentially stripping away a protective layer before reaching the edible tissue underneath.
A Strange Way to Eat a Mammal
Most predators do not have to remove armor before eating their prey.
A lion can bite through the hide of some prey.
A leopard can use its jaws to secure an impala.
A hyena can crush bones.
But a pangolin presents a completely different problem.
Before the predator can reach the flesh, it must contend with overlapping keratin scales.
That makes the pangolin a very unusual prey item.
The Scales Were Once a Major Evolutionary Advantage
For millions of years, pangolin scales have served as a powerful defense.
The African Pangolin Working Group describes the tight defensive ball as a distinctive feature shared by pangolins.
The strategy works particularly well against predators that rely on biting.
But no defense is perfect.
A predator that can manipulate the animal, prevent escape and force it out of its defensive position can potentially overcome the armor.
A Rare Predator-Prey Encounter
Wildlife encounters involving pangolins are already uncommon because pangolins are secretive, nocturnal animals.
Seeing one in the wild is considered a special sighting.
Seeing one being attacked by a hyena is much rarer.
And seeing the entire sequence—from capture to the predator overcoming the scales—is extraordinary.
This is why footage like this can provide an unusual window into predator-prey behavior.
Pangolins Face More Than Natural Predators
The hyena is not the only threat pangolins face.
Their conservation situation is particularly serious because humans pose an additional threat.
The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group identifies widespread threats to pangolins and works on research, conservation planning and protection of all eight species.
Pangolins are heavily affected by hunting, poaching, habitat loss and illegal wildlife trafficking.
All Eight Pangolin Species Are Threatened
The current conservation picture is concerning.
The IUCN’s Pangolin Specialist Group lists the eight species across categories ranging from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. Temminck’s pangolin is listed as Vulnerable, while several Asian species are Critically Endangered.
The IUCN reported in 2025 that all eight recognized pangolin species remain at high risk of extinction, with overexploitation and habitat loss among the major concerns.
That makes every wild pangolin encounter especially valuable for raising awareness.
Why Pangolin Scales Are Targeted
The scales are made of keratin.
They are not magical substances.
They are not capable of curing diseases simply because of traditional beliefs.
Yet illegal trade in pangolin scales has become a major conservation threat.
The IUCN notes that all eight pangolin species received the highest level of CITES protection in 2016, with international commercial trade prohibited under the applicable CITES framework.
A Natural Defense Becomes a Human Threat
There is an unfortunate irony here.
The same scales that protect pangolins from predators have made them valuable to illegal wildlife traffickers.
In the wild, the scales are armor.
To poachers, they have become a commodity.
This means pangolins face a threat that their evolutionary defenses were never designed to handle.
The Pangolin’s Story Does Not End With the Hyena
The individual animal in this footage could not survive the encounter.
But its story can still help people understand why pangolins matter.
The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group continues to coordinate research and conservation work because major gaps remain in our knowledge of wild pangolin populations and the pressures affecting them.
The more people understand these unusual mammals, the easier it becomes to appreciate their importance.
What Makes Pangolins So Unique?
A pangolin combines several unusual characteristics that are rarely found together in one mammal:
- It is covered in keratin scales.
- It can curl into a tight defensive ball.
- It has no teeth.
- It feeds mainly on ants and termites.
- It has an extraordinarily long tongue.
- It is largely nocturnal.
- It is generally solitary.
- It uses powerful claws for digging.
The African Wildlife Foundation highlights many of these remarkable adaptations.
The Hyena Found the Weakness
The most striking lesson from this encounter is that even an extraordinary defense has limits.
The pangolin’s scales prevented the hyena from immediately reaching the animal.
But the hyena did not stop.
It changed its approach.
It used its physical strength.
It moved the pangolin.
It eventually used the nearby stream to overcome the animal’s defensive strategy.
And once the pangolin could no longer maintain its protective ball, the hyena could begin removing the scales.
A Battle of Evolutionary Adaptations
This encounter was more than a predator catching prey.
It was a direct confrontation between two remarkable adaptations.
On one side:
The pangolin’s armor.
On the other:
The hyena’s jaws, strength and persistence.
The pangolin’s defense worked for a time.
The hyena eventually found a way around it.
That is natural selection in action at an individual level: adaptations provide advantages, but no adaptation guarantees survival in every encounter.
Watch the Full Pangolin Encounter
The original video was published under the title “Hyena Rips the Scales Off a Pangolin.” Latest Sightings credits Jan Kriel with filming the encounter near Jock Safari Lodge. The report was published on June 10, 2026.
Watch the original video:
Hyena Rips the Scales Off a Pangolin — YouTube
More Wildlife Encounters From KHXYZ
If you enjoy unusual predator encounters, you can also read about hyenas trying to pull a huge crocodile by its tail, another encounter where a group of predators discovered that heavily armored prey is not easy to control.
For another crocodile confrontation, see the crocodile that fought two otters after they bit its tail.
You can also read about the leopard that narrowly escaped a hidden crocodile attack, where the predator suddenly became the target.
And if you want another story about an animal relying on an unusual defense, check out the four porcupines that faced three lions.
