Ant vs Termite Specialists: Comparing Pangolin Diets by Species

Published: July 1, 2026

Every pangolin species is described the same way in popular accounts: an ant and termite eater. That description is accurate but flattens a considerable amount of real variation. Across the eight living species, prey preference falls along a spectrum, from species whose diet is overwhelmingly termite-based to species that rely almost entirely on ants, with several species occupying a genuinely mixed middle ground that shifts by habitat and season. Understanding where each species sits on this spectrum is not a minor biological detail. It shapes burrow and nest-site selection, foraging range, and, critically, the success of rehabilitation and reintroduction programmes that must match captive diets and release habitats to a species' actual prey specialization.

The Spectrum from Ant Specialist to Termite Specialist

Myrmecophagy, the ecological term for a diet specialised on ants and termites, describes a feeding strategy rather than a single uniform diet. Ants and termites differ substantially in nest architecture, colony defence chemistry, seasonal activity, and where they are found in the landscape, so a species adapted to exploit one group intensively is not automatically well suited to exploiting the other. The result is that closely related pangolin lineages have diverged toward opposite ends of the ant-termite spectrum depending on the habitat structure available to them.

Termite-Dominant Feeders: The Ground Pangolins of Africa

Temminck's ground pangolin, the species native to South Africa, is among the most termite-dependent of all eight species. Across savanna and bushveld habitat, its diet is dominated by harvester termites in the genus Microhodotermes and mound-building termites in the genus Trinervitermes, with ants forming a smaller supplementary component that becomes proportionally more important during periods when termite colony activity drops. This bias likely reflects the structure of savanna ecosystems, where termite mounds are abundant, energetically rewarding, and predictable in location across seasons, favouring an animal that can commit to deep excavation of large subterranean colonies rather than opportunistic ant foraging.

The giant ground pangolin of Central and West African forests shows a similar but less extreme bias toward termites, supplemented more heavily by ant colonies encountered in fallen timber and forest-floor leaf litter, consistent with the greater ant diversity available in tropical forest compared to open savanna.

Ant-Dominant Feeders: The Arboreal Pangolins of Africa

The two Phataginus species show the opposite pattern. The black-bellied pangolin spends nearly its entire life in the forest canopy and forages almost exclusively for ant colonies nesting in tree hollows, epiphytes, and vine tangles, since termite mounds, which are predominantly ground-based structures, are simply unavailable within its foraging range for most of its active life. The white-bellied pangolin divides its time between canopy and forest floor and correspondingly shows a more mixed diet than its strictly arboreal relative, but ants still make up the clear majority of recorded prey items.

This arboreal ant specialization is closely tied to body plan. Both Phataginus species have a long, muscular, prehensile tail and lighter body mass than the ground-dwelling Smutsia species, features that support climbing but are poorly suited to the heavy excavation required to break open large termite mounds.

The Mixed Feeders: Asian Manis Species

The four Asian species in the genus Manis generally show more balanced ant-and-termite diets than either African genus, though local habitat still produces measurable bias. The Indian pangolin, found across dry scrub, grassland, and agricultural margins of the Indian subcontinent, tends to consume proportionally more termites where mound-building species are locally abundant. The Chinese pangolin, historically found in forest and increasingly restricted to agricultural edge habitat across its shrinking range, shows relatively higher ant intake in areas where farming has reduced large termite mound density while leaving ant colonies in field margins intact.

The Sunda pangolin, ranging across mainland and insular Southeast Asia, is the most broadly opportunistic feeder of the group, with published dietary studies recording upward of two dozen ant and termite genera consumed across its range, and individual animals showing repeat visits to specific colony types that suggest learned local foraging preference rather than a fixed species-wide bias. The Philippine pangolin, restricted to Palawan, shows dietary composition that varies noticeably between forest interior and forest-edge populations on the island.

What Drives the Difference

Three factors largely explain why pangolin species diverge along the ant-termite spectrum. Habitat structure is the strongest driver: termite mounds are a ground-based, savanna and open-woodland resource, while many ant colonies exploited by pangolins are arboreal or found in forest-floor litter, so species living in structurally different habitats encounter structurally different prey. Body morphology reinforces this pattern, since heavy digging forelimbs and blunt claws favour termite mound excavation while a light body and prehensile tail favour arboreal ant foraging. Finally, colony defence chemistry plays a role. Termite soldiers and ant colonies produce different classes of defensive compounds, and a pangolin's tolerance for these compounds, along with its foraging technique for minimising exposure to soldier castes, appears to be at least partly specialised rather than fully generalised across all colonial insects.

Why It Matters for Conservation and Rehabilitation

Prey specialization has direct, practical consequences for wildlife rehabilitation centres, particularly in South Africa where confiscated and injured Temminck's ground pangolins require intensive dietary management before release. Facilities that have learned to prioritise termite-heavy feeding regimes, using gut-loaded live insects sourced from local mound species where possible, report better weight gain and appetite than programmes defaulting to generic mixed insect diets. The same principle applies to release-site selection: a rehabilitated ground pangolin released into habitat with low termite mound density, even if ants are locally abundant, is likely to struggle regardless of how healthy it was at the point of release.

More broadly, recognising that pangolin species are not interchangeable in their dietary ecology reinforces why conservation strategies must be habitat-specific and species-specific rather than treated as a single generic template applied across the family. A termite-dependent savanna specialist and an ant-dependent forest-canopy specialist face different threats, require different protected habitat characteristics, and need different rehabilitation protocols, even though both are, in the broadest sense, ant and termite eaters.