PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — With its scaly exterior, peculiar body shape and propensity for rolling into an armored ball when threatened, the pangolin has invited comparison to the artichoke and the pine cone.

But a 3-year-old female pangolin at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center here seemed oblivious to her odd appearance and unaware that she was missing two feet, both lost to a poacher’s snare.

Accompanied by her lone male offspring, she ambled through the leaves and underbrush, sniffed amiably at a visitor’s shoe and headed off to check for leftovers in the bowl of mashed insects prepared by a caretaker at the center.

Elephants and rhinoceroses often serve as the poster animals for the illegal trade in wildlife — the elephant killed for the ivory in its tusks, the rhino for its horn.