Pangolin-Friendly Farming Practices in South Africa

When most people think about pangolin conservation, they think about anti-poaching units, trafficking busts, and rehabilitation centres. What often goes unmentioned is the role of ordinary farmers. Across Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and KwaZulu-Natal, millions of hectares of privately owned agricultural land overlap directly with the range of Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), South Africa's only native pangolin species. What happens on these farms — how the land is managed, what chemicals are applied, how fences are built — has a direct and measurable impact on whether pangolins survive or disappear from landscapes they have occupied for millennia.

South Africa's formal protected areas, while critically important, cover only a fraction of the pangolin's total range. The remainder is working land: cattle ranches, game farms, crop operations, and mixed-use smallholdings. This means that farmers are not bystanders in the conservation story. They are, whether they realise it or not, among the most important custodians of pangolin habitat in the country. The good news is that farming and pangolin conservation are not mutually exclusive. A set of practical, low-cost management adjustments can significantly improve conditions for pangolins without compromising agricultural productivity.

Why Farmland Matters for Pangolins

Temminck's ground pangolin occupies a broad range of habitats across southern Africa, from dense bushveld and open savanna to woodland edges and semi-arid scrub. In South Africa, much of this habitat falls within the country's agricultural heartland. The bushveld regions of Limpopo and North West, the Lowveld and Highveld transition zones of Mpumalanga, and the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal all support both farming operations and pangolin populations.

Unlike species that are confined to pristine wilderness, pangolins can persist on farmland — provided the land retains sufficient natural vegetation, a healthy population of ants and termites (their exclusive food source), and safe passage between foraging areas. Research conducted by the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG) and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has shown that pangolins regularly use farm boundaries, drainage lines, and uncultivated bush strips as movement corridors. Some individuals have home ranges that span multiple properties, meaning that the management decisions of several neighbouring landowners can collectively determine whether a local pangolin population persists or collapses.

The Threats on Working Land

Agricultural landscapes expose pangolins to a suite of risks that differ markedly from the poaching threat that dominates public discourse. Understanding these threats is the first step toward mitigating them.

Pesticide and Insecticide Use

Pangolins are obligate myrmecophages — they eat nothing but ants and termites. A single adult Temminck's ground pangolin may consume tens of thousands of these insects nightly, relying on a network of colonies distributed across its home range. Broad-spectrum insecticides, applied to control crop pests or to clear termite mounds perceived as a nuisance, can devastate the prey base that pangolins depend on. Even targeted termite treatments applied around building foundations and infrastructure can reduce local food availability if applied extensively.

The impact is not always immediate. Insecticide residues in soil can suppress ant and termite colony recovery for months or years, creating dead zones within a pangolin's foraging range. When enough of the range becomes depleted, the pangolin must travel further each night to find food — burning more energy, increasing exposure to roads and fences, and reducing body condition. For pregnant or lactating females, who carry or nurse a single pup for several months, the consequences of prey depletion can be fatal.

Land Clearing and Habitat Fragmentation

Converting natural bush to cultivated land or improved pasture removes the vegetation structure that pangolins require for shelter and foraging. Pangolins rest during the day in self-excavated burrows, abandoned aardvark holes, or dense vegetation thickets. When these features are cleared, pangolins lose both resting sites and the connective habitat corridors they use to move between foraging patches. Fragmented landscapes force pangolins into smaller, isolated pockets of habitat, reducing genetic exchange and increasing vulnerability to localised threats.

Fencing

Livestock and game fencing — particularly electrified designs — poses a well-documented threat to pangolins. While the specifics of electric fence mitigation have been covered in depth elsewhere on this site, it is worth noting in the farming context that fence design is entirely within a landowner's control. Standard agricultural fencing with closely spaced low strands can also obstruct pangolin movement, even without electrification, if it forces animals into dangerous detours along roads or through open terrain where they are exposed to predators and vehicles.

Dogs and Disturbance

Farm dogs, particularly packs of free-roaming dogs, are a significant and underappreciated threat. While a pangolin's scales provide effective protection against most wild predators, domestic dogs can harass pangolins for extended periods, preventing them from foraging and causing stress injuries. In some documented cases, packs of farm dogs have killed pangolins by rolling them repeatedly and biting at exposed soft tissue. The presence of uncontrolled dogs on a property can effectively render otherwise suitable habitat unusable for pangolins.

Practical Guidelines for Pangolin-Friendly Farming

The adjustments required to make a farm more pangolin-friendly are neither expensive nor operationally disruptive. Most involve managing existing practices rather than introducing new ones.

Reduce Pesticide Impact

Adopt Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles wherever possible. Target chemical applications to specific problem areas rather than applying blanket treatments across entire fields. Maintain untreated buffer strips of at least 50 metres along natural drainage lines, bush edges, and between cultivated blocks. These strips serve as refuge zones for ant and termite colonies and, by extension, foraging corridors for pangolins. Where termite control is necessary near structures, use bait systems rather than soil drenches, and select products with shorter environmental persistence.

Retain Natural Vegetation Corridors

The single most impactful step a landowner can take is to retain strips of natural bush and grassland that connect larger patches of habitat. These corridors do not need to be wide — even 30 to 50 metre strips of uncleared vegetation along fence lines, rivers, ridges, and between camps provide meaningful connectivity for pangolins. Avoid clearing isolated termite mounds or thickets of indigenous bush that may appear unproductive; these features are disproportionately valuable to pangolins and a range of other wildlife. Conservation-minded land management practices, such as rotational grazing that prevents overutilisation of natural vegetation, further enhance habitat quality across the farm.

Design Pangolin-Safe Fencing

If new fencing is being erected, consider raising the lowest strand to at least 30 centimetres above ground to allow pangolins to pass underneath. Where electrification is required, insulate the bottom one or two strands using split PVC conduit. On existing fences, periodic inspection of the bottom strands for signs of animal entanglement — tufts of fur, displaced soil, or damaged insulators — can alert landowners to problem areas. Simple pangolin-friendly modifications cost less than replacing a single fence post and can prevent deaths indefinitely.

Control Dogs

Keep farm dogs confined or supervised at night, when pangolins are active. If guard dogs are used for livestock protection, ensure they are trained and monitored. Dogs that roam freely across farmland at night are not only a threat to pangolins but also to other vulnerable species including aardvarks, porcupines, and ground-nesting birds. Responsible dog management is one of the simplest and most immediately effective measures a landowner can implement.

Report Sightings

Every pangolin sighting is scientifically valuable. If a pangolin is encountered on the property, record the date, time, GPS location, and if possible, a photograph. Report the sighting to the African Pangolin Working Group through their website or contact line. These records feed into national population monitoring databases and help researchers understand pangolin distribution, density, and habitat use. If the animal is injured or in distress, contact the APWG emergency line immediately — early intervention dramatically improves rehabilitation outcomes.

Stewardship Programmes and Incentives

South Africa offers several formal mechanisms for landowners who want to go beyond basic coexistence and actively contribute to conservation on their properties.

The Biodiversity Stewardship programme, administered by provincial conservation authorities, allows landowners to voluntarily declare portions of their land as Protected Environments or Contract Nature Reserves. These designations carry legal protection for the land's biodiversity values and can unlock tangible benefits for the landowner, including municipal property rate rebates, eligibility for conservation grant funding, and enhanced land valuation. Critically, stewardship agreements are tailored to the property — they do not require landowners to stop farming or to fence off large areas. They recognise that production landscapes can coexist with conservation outcomes.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust operates targeted programmes that work directly with farmers in key pangolin range areas. Their field officers provide free technical assessments of farm properties, identifying specific risks and recommending practical modifications. The EWT also facilitates farmer networks in regions like the Waterberg and Lowveld, enabling landowners to coordinate conservation actions across property boundaries — a critical factor given that pangolin home ranges typically span multiple farms.

At a community level, conservancies — voluntary associations of neighbouring landowners who agree to manage their properties for both production and biodiversity — provide a framework for landscape-scale pangolin protection. Several conservancies in Limpopo and North West have adopted pangolin-specific management guidelines, including fence audits, pesticide use restrictions, and coordinated sighting reporting. These models demonstrate that effective pangolin conservation does not require government intervention or large budgets; it requires willing landowners and good information.

The Farmer as Conservationist

The narrative around pangolin conservation in South Africa tends to focus on dramatic interventions: law enforcement operations, cross-border trafficking busts, and intensive veterinary rehabilitation. These efforts are essential. But they address symptoms. The underlying condition — whether pangolins have viable habitat to live in — is determined largely by how private land is managed.

A farmer in the Waterberg who retains a bush corridor along a drainage line is protecting pangolin habitat. A cattle rancher in Mpumalanga who insulates the bottom strands of an electric fence is preventing pangolin deaths. A crop farmer in North West who adopts IPM and maintains untreated buffer strips is preserving the prey base that pangolins cannot survive without. None of these actions require specialist knowledge, significant expense, or a compromise on agricultural output. They require awareness, willingness, and a recognition that the land we farm is shared with species that were here long before the first fence post was driven into the ground.

Temminck's ground pangolin has survived on the landscapes of southern Africa for millions of years. Whether it survives the next fifty will depend, in no small part, on the decisions made by the people who work those landscapes every day.