Why are pangolins particularly vulnerable to electric fences?

Temminck's ground pangolins are instinctive climbers that rear up on their hind legs and use their front limbs to investigate vertical structures, including fence wires. Their overlapping keratin scales, while effective against predator bites, do not insulate against electric current. The soft, unscaled skin on their underbelly, face, and limbs is highly conductive, and when a pangolin grips a live wire while in contact with the ground, the resulting circuit delivers a lethal or severely injuring shock. Their curling defence response can also lock them onto the wire, prolonging exposure.

Which types of electric fences are most dangerous to pangolins?

High-voltage, low-impedance energisers common on game and livestock farms in Limpopo, North West, and KwaZulu-Natal pose the greatest risk. Fences with live wires positioned between roughly 20 cm and 60 cm above ground are in the exact height range that a walking or rearing pangolin will contact. Multi-strand fences where every strand is electrified leave no safe passage. Fences running through or adjacent to natural habitat corridors, particularly along drainage lines and bush interfaces, see higher pangolin contact rates because these are the routes pangolins naturally travel at night.

Conservation Research 24 May 2026 6 min read

Pangolin Electric Fence Deaths: How We Can Stop Them

Q: What is the single most cost-effective modification a landowner can make to protect pangolins?

Insulating the bottom one or two strands of an existing electric fence using split PVC conduit pipe is widely regarded as the most practical and affordable first step. The pipe is cut lengthways, clipped over the live wire, and held in place with UV-stable cable ties. This removes the electrification at the height most likely to be contacted by a pangolin without compromising the fence's effectiveness against livestock or large predators. Combined with a simple fence-strike alert system that notifies the landowner when an animal contacts the fence, this approach can significantly reduce pangolin mortality at relatively low cost.

Across South Africa's bushveld, from the baobab-studded plains of Limpopo to the thornveld of North West and the coastal hinterlands of KwaZulu-Natal, tens of thousands of kilometres of electric fencing divide farms, game reserves, and conservation areas. This infrastructure serves a legitimate purpose: protecting livestock, controlling wildlife movement, and securing high-value game. But for Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), South Africa's only native pangolin species, these fences represent one of the most underreported and preventable causes of death in the country.

The scale of the problem is only beginning to come into focus. Researchers, wildlife veterinarians, and field rangers working across the pangolin's range have documented a consistent and disturbing pattern: pangolins found dead or critically injured at fence lines, their bodies locked in a characteristic curl around live wires. Conservative estimates suggest that electric fence electrocutions could account for a significant portion of non-poaching pangolin deaths in South Africa each year. Because pangolins are nocturnal and secretive, and because many farms are large and under-monitored at night, the true mortality figure is almost certainly higher than reported numbers suggest.

Why Pangolins Die on Electric Fences

Climbing Behaviour and Natural Curiosity

Understanding why pangolins are so vulnerable begins with understanding how they move through their environment. Temminck's ground pangolins are not passive wanderers. They are active investigators that regularly rear up on their hind legs, using their powerful tail for balance, to reach insects, sniff the air, and examine vertical surfaces. This behaviour, which is entirely normal and serves them well in a predator-detection context, becomes fatal when the vertical surface in question is a live electric wire.

A pangolin approaching a fence line at night will typically follow it, probing with its snout and front limbs. When it rears to investigate a wire at mid-body height, the front claws and soft facial skin make direct contact with the conductor while the hind feet remain grounded. The circuit closes, and the animal receives a shock. Unlike large mammals that may be thrown clear by the initial jolt, a pangolin's instinctive response to threat is to curl into a tight ball, gripping whatever it is holding. In the worst cases, this curling response locks the animal onto the wire, and repeated or sustained electrocution follows.

Body Conductivity and Scale Vulnerability

The pangolin's iconic armour of overlapping keratin scales provides remarkable protection against lion bites and leopard claws, but it offers no resistance to electrical current. The soft, unscaled skin on the pangolin's underside, inner limbs, face, and ears is highly conductive. When this tissue contacts a live wire, current passes through the body with little impedance. Internal burns, cardiac arrest, and severe neurological damage are all documented outcomes of fence electrocution in pangolins that have been recovered and examined by wildlife veterinarians.

Juveniles face additional risk. Young pangolins, which remain with their mothers for several months and are carried on the base of the tail, are proportionally smaller and lighter. A fence strike that might merely stun an adult can be fatal to a juvenile. Maternal fence deaths also orphan dependent young, creating a secondary mortality pathway that compounds the direct toll.

Which Fences Are Most Dangerous

Not all electric fences carry the same risk. Research and field experience point to several fence configurations as particularly lethal to pangolins.

High-voltage, low-impedance energisers, now standard on many commercial game farms and livestock operations across the Limpopo Valley and the bushveld of North West Province, deliver a much more powerful shock than older, high-impedance systems. Multi-strand fences where every strand is electrified, including the lowest wire at ground-contact height, provide no safe passage for a pangolin attempting to move through or under the fence. Fence lines running through natural habitat corridors, particularly along drainage lines, dry riverbeds, and the boundaries between grassland and dense bush, coincide with exactly the routes that pangolins use to move between foraging areas each night.

The critical danger zone for wire height is approximately 20 cm to 60 cm above ground. This is the range most likely to be contacted by a walking pangolin's body or a rearing pangolin's front limbs and face. Fences with multiple live wires in this band are the most hazardous configurations documented in the field.

Proven Mitigation Techniques

PVC Pipe Insulation

The most widely recommended and field-tested modification is the insulation of the lowest one or two fence strands using split PVC conduit pipe. Electrical conduit of an appropriate diameter is cut lengthways with a utility knife or angle grinder, then clipped over the live wire and secured with UV-stable cable ties at regular intervals. This removes electrification at the height most likely to be contacted by a pangolin without compromising the fence's performance against livestock, large predators, or human intruders.

The material cost per kilometre of fence is modest, and installation can be carried out by farm staff with basic tools and a short briefing. Several wildlife NGOs operating in South Africa have run subsidised pipe-insulation programmes on farms within known pangolin habitat, covering material and labour costs for landowners who agree to participate. For farms with many kilometres of perimeter fencing, prioritising sections adjacent to riparian corridors, water sources, and areas where pangolin signs have been recorded maximises impact per rand spent.

Fence Alert Systems

Fence-strike alert systems represent a complementary technology with growing uptake in the conservation community. These devices, which connect to the energiser circuit, detect when an animal contacts the fence and send an SMS or app notification to a designated recipient — typically a farm manager, ranger, or conservation officer. A prompt response to an alert can mean the difference between rescuing a living but injured pangolin and recovering a carcass at first light.

Several South African companies now produce wildlife-compatible alert systems that can distinguish between brief vegetation contacts and the sustained strikes associated with an animal in difficulty. Integration with camera trap networks along fence lines adds a visual confirmation layer, helping responders assess the situation before arriving on site.

Pangolin-Safe Fence Design

For new fencing installations or major refurbishments, pangolin-safe design principles can be incorporated from the outset. Key features include a non-electrified bottom strand set at ground level or slightly above, which allows small mammals to pass under the fence without contact; reduced energiser output on strands in the 20-60 cm zone; and the incorporation of wildlife crossing points at regular intervals, particularly at natural movement corridors. Some designs raise the entire bottom portion of the fence off the ground by 15-20 cm, a modification that benefits a range of small wildlife while adding negligible cost to new installations.

Height Adjustments and Strand Reconfiguration

On existing fences where full insulation or redesign is not immediately feasible, adjusting wire heights can reduce risk. Raising the lowest electrified strand to above 60 cm, or dropping it to below 15 cm where it is less likely to be contacted by a rearing pangolin, can reduce the probability of a fatal interaction. These adjustments require careful consideration of the fence's primary purpose — a modification that creates a livestock escape route is counterproductive — but on game farm perimeters and internal game camp fences, the flexibility is often available.

The Role of Landowners and the Conservation Community

South Africa's wildlife lives overwhelmingly on private and communal land. Game farmers, cattle ranchers, and lodge owners in Limpopo, North West, and KwaZulu-Natal collectively manage the landscape on which the majority of the country's remaining Temminck's ground pangolins forage, breed, and travel. This means that voluntary landowner action is not peripheral to pangolin fence mitigation — it is central to it.

Landowners who are aware of pangolin activity on their property are frequently willing to adopt mitigation measures when approached respectfully and provided with clear, practical guidance. The barrier is most often awareness, not willingness. Many farm managers have never been told that pangolins are present on their land, or that the fence their grandfather installed presents a specific risk to a species now more endangered than the rhinoceros.

NGOs working in this space have made landowner engagement a core programme strand. The African Pangolin Working Group (APWG), which coordinates pangolin conservation across southern Africa, has trained numerous field officers in fence risk assessment and mitigation installation. Pangolin.Africa, another active organisation in the South African conservation landscape, works with reserves and private landowners to map pangolin habitat and prioritise fencing interventions. These organisations operate on limited budgets and rely heavily on donor support and volunteer time to extend their reach.

Community rangers and monitors in areas adjacent to communal land boundaries play an equally important role. Night patrols that include fence-line checks in known pangolin movement zones have resulted in live rescues. Training community members to recognise pangolin fence injuries and to contact wildlife response networks promptly has saved lives. This community-level action is explored in greater depth in our conservation programme pages, where you can also find information on how AlphaPanga supports field teams across South Africa.

Translating Awareness into Action

Fence mitigation for pangolins is not a technically complex problem. The solutions are understood. The materials are available. The landowners, in many cases, are willing. What is missing is the sustained funding, coordination, and public awareness needed to scale interventions from individual farm success stories to a landscape-level programme.

Readers who want to act can do several things directly. If you own or manage land in pangolin habitat, contact the APWG or Pangolin.Africa for a free fence risk assessment and access to subsidised insulation materials. If you are a wildlife veterinarian, farm vet, or field ranger, familiarise yourself with the emergency treatment protocols for electrocuted pangolins, which differ in important ways from standard electrocution responses due to the species' physiology and stress sensitivity. If you are a donor or corporate partner, targeted funding for fence mitigation programmes delivers measurable, traceable conservation outcomes: a specified number of fence kilometres insulated, a specified number of alert systems installed, and, over time, a documented reduction in fence mortality in treated areas.

Our blog covers the full range of threats facing Temminck's ground pangolin in South Africa, from trafficking and habitat loss to road collisions and, as documented here, electric fence mortality. Each of these threats is preventable with sufficient resources and public will.

Support AlphaPanga's Mission

At AlphaPanga, we exist to close the gap between what is known about pangolin conservation and what is actually being done on the ground. Electric fence mitigation is one of the most tractable problems in pangolin conservation: the interventions work, the costs are manageable, and the outcomes are measurable. But none of it happens without the resources to reach landowners, install modifications, train community monitors, and follow up with long-term monitoring.

Every contribution to AlphaPanga's work goes directly toward field programmes protecting Temminck's ground pangolin in South Africa. Whether you give once or become a recurring supporter, your contribution funds real interventions in Limpopo, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, and beyond. Support our mission today and help ensure that South Africa's pangolins survive the night — on both sides of the fence.