Ground Pangolin Burrowing and Habitat in South Africa

South Africa's only pangolin species — the ground pangolin — is a master excavator whose relationship with the soil is as fundamental to its survival as its famous scales. Understanding where these animals live, how they construct and use burrows, and what threatens their habitat is essential for protecting the species across southern Africa.

Smutsia temminckii: South Africa's Sole Pangolin Species

Of the four African pangolin species, only one occurs in South Africa: Smutsia temminckii, commonly known as Temminck's ground pangolin or the ground pangolin. It is the most widely distributed pangolin species on the African continent, ranging from South Africa northward through Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and as far as Sudan and Chad. Despite this broad distribution, populations are in serious decline everywhere due to poaching and habitat loss, and the species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

The ground pangolin is a robust, medium-to-large pangolin species. Adults typically weigh between 5 and 18 kilograms, with males considerably larger than females on average. The body is covered in broad, overlapping brown scales of keratinised skin, and the animal walks with a distinctive bipedal gait, balancing on its hindlimbs with the tail extended for counterbalance and the forelimbs held close to the chest or extended forward. The long, mobile snout and small, protected eyes are characteristic features of this insectivore.

Unlike its Central and West African relatives — the giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) and the tree pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) — the ground pangolin is strictly terrestrial, spending all of its foraging and resting time on or below the surface of the ground. Its powerful limbs and robust claws are built for digging, and its life is organised around the burrow as a primary functional unit.

Habitat Range Across South Africa

Within South Africa, ground pangolins occupy a diverse range of vegetation biomes, but they show strong associations with open, semi-arid and savanna environments. The core South African distribution runs through the northern provinces: Limpopo, North West, and Mpumalanga are the most important regions, with smaller populations in the Northern Cape and occasional records from parts of the North West/Free State border zone.

The Limpopo province hosts some of the highest-density ground pangolin populations in the country, particularly in the mixed bushveld zones of the Waterberg, the Limpopo River valley, and adjacent areas. Here, a mosaic of Acacia and Combretum woodland interspersed with open grassland and hardpan termitaria creates productive pangolin habitat — good termite density, accessible soil for burrowing, and sufficient cover for daytime resting.

North West province, including areas surrounding the Madikwe Game Reserve and the Pilanesberg, supports significant pangolin populations. Mpumalanga's lowveld, particularly the areas adjacent to Kruger National Park and private game reserves along the western boundary, also provides suitable habitat.

In the Northern Cape, ground pangolins reach their semi-arid habitat limit. The Kalahari sandveld — typified by red Kalahari sand, camel thorn Acacia, and abundant harvester termite activity — supports pangolins in areas such as the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, which has become one of the most important private conservation areas for the species in South Africa. The Kalahari environment is hotter and drier than the Limpopo bushveld, and pangolins here must adapt their burrowing behaviour to the looser, more free-draining sand substrate.

Burrowing Behaviour: Self-Dug vs Appropriated Burrows

The ground pangolin's relationship with burrows is more flexible and opportunistic than is often assumed. While they are perfectly capable of excavating their own burrows — and frequently do so — they also readily appropriate burrows dug by other species, most notably the aardvark (Orycteropus afer), the warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), and the spring hare (Pedetes capensis).

Self-excavated burrows are typically dug in hard soil, often into the side of termite mounds or into compact clay-loam substrates. The pangolin uses its massive forelimb claws to break soil, then pushes loosened material backward with its forelimbs before reversing out of the tunnel and kicking debris clear with its hindlegs. This is slow, energy-intensive work, and pangolins may abandon a self-excavation attempt if they encounter particularly compacted soil or embedded rock.

Aardvark burrows are by far the most commonly used appropriated refuge. Aardvarks dig large, rambling burrow systems with entrance tunnels that may be 30 to 50 centimetres wide and 1 to 3 metres in depth before reaching a sleeping chamber. These dimensions comfortably accommodate a pangolin, and the pre-existing structure requires no further digging effort. GPS and radio tracking studies across South Africa have consistently found that individual ground pangolins maintain mental maps of aardvark burrow locations within their home range, returning to them repeatedly across months and years.

Warthog burrows are also used, though warthogs occupy their burrows year-round and the temporal availability of unoccupied warthog burrows depends on local warthog population dynamics. Spring hare burrows, being smaller, are more typically used by juvenile pangolins or smaller adult females than by large adult males.

Burrow Structure: Depth, Length, and Chamber

Self-excavated pangolin burrows tend to be simpler in structure than the elaborate multi-chamber burrows of aardvarks. A typical pangolin-dug burrow consists of an entrance tunnel ranging from 20 to 30 centimetres in width, descending at an angle of 20 to 40 degrees before levelling out at depth. Total tunnel length in self-dug burrows is usually between 1 and 4 metres, terminating in a slightly enlarged resting chamber where the pangolin can curl up.

Depth to the resting chamber varies enormously by substrate. In soft Kalahari sand, pangolins have been excavated by researchers (as part of rescue and monitoring operations) at depths of up to 2 metres below the surface. In harder clay-loam soils more typical of the Limpopo bushveld, self-dug burrows rarely exceed 1 to 1.5 metres in depth, as the energy cost of excavation in compacted substrate increases steeply with depth.

The resting chamber itself is not lined with vegetation or other material — pangolins do not construct nests. The curled-ball posture is the pangolin's primary thermoregulatory and protective strategy within the burrow, supplementing the buffering effect of the soil above. Some burrows used by females with pups have larger chambers to accommodate both animals during the nursing period, which can last up to 3 to 4 months.

Site Selection: Soil Type and Proximity to Food

Ground pangolins are selective about where they dig or which pre-existing burrows they occupy. Research using GPS data combined with environmental GIS mapping has identified several key variables that predict burrow site selection. Soil texture is paramount: pangolins strongly avoid rocky and laterite substrates where digging is impossible, and show preferences for intermediate-textured loamy soils that are workable but stable enough to maintain tunnel integrity. Pure sand, while easily excavated, may lead to burrow collapse and is used more by pangolins in Kalahari environments where alternatives are absent.

Proximity to productive termite mounds is a consistent predictor of burrow location. Telemetry data show that pangolins rarely establish daytime burrows more than 1 to 2 kilometres from the foraging sites they used the preceding night, minimising travel distance at dawn when the animal is returning to shelter. This spatial clustering of burrow and foraging site means that habitat patches combining accessible soil and abundant termitaria are disproportionately valuable and warrant priority protection.

Slope aspect and canopy cover are secondary factors. In hot semi-arid environments, burrow entrances on south-facing slopes (in the southern hemisphere) experience lower direct solar radiation, keeping entrance temperatures cooler and reducing thermal loading on the burrow interior. Partial canopy cover over the entrance serves a similar function and provides visual concealment from aerial predators.

Temperature Regulation: Inside the Burrow

The thermal buffering provided by burrows is critical for ground pangolins, which have limited active thermoregulatory capacity and are vulnerable to overheating. Soil is an excellent thermal insulator: at depths of just 1 metre, soil temperature in southern African environments fluctuates only 2 to 5 degrees Celsius across a 24-hour cycle, compared to surface temperature swings of 20 to 35 degrees or more in open habitats.

Temperature loggers deployed in monitored ground pangolin burrows in the Limpopo region have recorded interior temperatures remaining between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius year-round, even as ambient surface temperatures swung from below 5 degrees on winter nights to above 40 degrees on summer afternoons. This stable thermal environment allows pangolins to reduce their metabolic rate safely during daytime rest, conserving the substantial energy reserves needed for nocturnal foraging.

In very cold weather, the insulating effect of the burrow prevents the hypothermia that might otherwise threaten these animals. Unlike some small mammals that enter deep torpor to cope with cold, pangolins maintain activity throughout winter — emerging each night to forage even in near-freezing conditions — and the burrow's stable internal temperature is what makes this physiologically possible.

Den Fidelity: Do Pangolins Return to the Same Burrows?

One of the more practically important questions for pangolin conservation and monitoring is whether individual animals show fidelity to specific burrows, or whether they are essentially nomadic in their shelter use. The answer from telemetry research is nuanced: ground pangolins show moderate den site fidelity, returning to a set of preferred burrows within their home range rather than either using the same burrow every night or selecting burrow sites randomly.

Long-term tracking of individuals in South Africa has shown that a single pangolin may maintain a portfolio of 5 to 20 burrow sites distributed across its home range, rotating among them on an irregular basis. Some burrows are used more frequently than others, and certain sites appear to function as core refuges returned to many times across months or even years. Other burrows are used opportunistically, visited when the animal's nightly ranging path happens to bring it close to a known shelter at dawn.

This den rotation behaviour likely serves several functions: it reduces the risk of predator ambush at predictable locations, allows parasites and insect scavengers associated with the burrow to disperse between uses, and distributes the localised soil disturbance from pangolin excavation activity more evenly across the landscape.

Home Range Size in South Africa

Home range data for South African ground pangolins come primarily from GPS collar studies conducted by the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG), Tikki Hywood Foundation researchers operating in Zimbabwe (with comparable habitat to adjacent South African provinces), and researchers attached to South African conservation organisations and universities.

Reported home range sizes span a wide range. Females in productive habitat have recorded minimum convex polygon (MCP) home ranges of 5 to 30 square kilometres. Males are consistently larger-ranging, with home ranges typically 2 to 3 times larger than females in the same habitat — ranging from 15 to over 100 square kilometres in some individuals. The largest home ranges documented in the published literature for southern African ground pangolins approach 140 square kilometres for adult males in low-productivity habitat.

These figures highlight an important conservation reality: even in protected areas, a single ground pangolin may require tens of square kilometres of connected habitat. Small, isolated reserves are likely to support only a handful of individuals, making regional connectivity essential for population viability.

Habitat Fragmentation: Fencing and Agriculture

The expansion of agricultural land and the proliferation of farm fencing across the South African landscape represent two of the most significant structural threats to ground pangolin habitat connectivity. Game fencing — solid boundary fencing used to contain wildlife on private game farms — is particularly problematic because pangolins are unable to climb and frequently become trapped against fence lines during their nocturnal ranging.

Electrified fences present a lethal threat. Pangolins investigating a fence line may receive a shock that causes them to curl into a ball directly against the live wire, resulting in prolonged contact and death. Numerous electrocution deaths are recorded by APWG and partner organisations each year. Non-electrified game fencing can entangle pangolins that attempt to push through or under the mesh, particularly where the bottom of the fence is not properly pegged to the ground.

Agricultural conversion — particularly the transformation of bushveld and grassland to dryland cropping or irrigated farming — removes the termite mound density that underpins pangolin food supply and eliminates burrowing substrate in favour of cultivated, mechanically disturbed soil. Pesticide and herbicide application further reduces ant and termite abundance in agricultural zones.

Key Protected Areas in South Africa

Several protected areas play a disproportionate role in ground pangolin conservation within South Africa. Kruger National Park, at nearly 20,000 square kilometres, provides the largest contiguous protected landscape in the country and certainly supports a significant pangolin population, though the density and distribution of pangolins within Kruger has not been systematically quantified. The park's vast size makes it an important reservoir population and a potential source for adjacent private lands.

Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in the Northern Cape has become arguably the most important single private landholding for ground pangolin conservation and research in South Africa. The reserve's management has invested substantially in pangolin monitoring and the site has been the focus of key telemetry research. The Kalahari sandveld environment at Tswalu supports a known pangolin population, and the reserve's dedication to monitoring, anti-poaching, and research makes it a reference site for the species.

Madikwe Game Reserve in North West province, the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in Limpopo, and numerous private game reserves and conservancies in these regions collectively form a mosaic of protected and semi-protected land that supports significant pangolin populations. The growth of wildlife ranching and conservation-aligned game farming across the Limpopo bushveld has expanded the effective protected area available to pangolins over the past two decades, even as it has introduced fencing risks.

Private Conservancies and Ground Pangolin Protection

The role of private landowners in South African pangolin conservation cannot be overstated. The majority of ground pangolins in South Africa occur on private land — game farms, nature reserves, and cattle and wildlife ranches that have retained natural vegetation. This means that the fate of the species is substantially in the hands of private decisions about land use, fencing, pesticide application, and tolerance for wildlife.

The African Pangolin Working Group, founded by conservation veterinarian Dr. Nicci Deneys (now Nicci Wright) and operating across southern Africa, works extensively with private landowners to provide pangolin-safe fencing modifications, training in pangolin detection and response, and rapid-response veterinary care for injured or confiscated animals. APWG's network of volunteer monitors — many of them farm owners or game reserve managers — forms a vital early-warning system for pangolin disturbances and poaching incidents.

Some private reserves have implemented specific management interventions for pangolins: removing electrified bottom wires from fence lines, leaving aardvark burrows undisturbed, reducing rodenticide and pesticide use in key pangolin areas, and training security staff to recognise pangolin signs and respond appropriately to incidents. These measures, while individually modest, collectively represent a substantial improvement in habitat quality for pangolins on private land.

Frequently Asked Questions