Yes, pangolins can swim. They are capable swimmers that cross rivers and other water bodies when necessary. Pangolins inflate their stomachs with air before entering the water, which increases buoyancy and helps them float. Combined with a paddling motion of their limbs and lateral sweeps of their muscular tails, this allows them to swim considerable distances. Both ground-dwelling and arboreal pangolin species have been observed swimming.

Pangolin Locomotion, Swimming and Climbing: How Pangolins Move

Q: Do pangolins walk on two legs or four?

Pangolins use both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion depending on the species and situation. Ground pangolins such as Temminck's ground pangolin typically walk on all fours but curl their front claws inward and walk on the outer edges or knuckles of their forepaws to protect the sharp digging claws. Some species, particularly the giant ground pangolin, are known to walk bipedally on their hind legs, using their heavy tail as a counterbalance. Bipedal walking frees the forelimbs for other tasks and may offer a better vantage point.

Q: How do pangolins climb trees?

Arboreal pangolin species climb trees using a combination of sharp, curved claws and prehensile tails. The claws grip bark while the tail wraps around branches to provide an anchor point. Tree pangolins such as the white-bellied pangolin and the long-tailed pangolin have tails that can support their full body weight, allowing them to hang from branches and reach otherwise inaccessible foraging sites. Ground pangolin species generally do not climb trees, though juvenile Temminck's ground pangolins have occasionally been observed in low vegetation.

Q: How fast can a pangolin run?

Pangolins are not fast animals. Most species walk at a pace of roughly 3 to 5 kilometres per hour during normal foraging movement. When threatened, they can increase to a short burst of speed but their primary defensive strategy is to curl into a tight ball rather than to flee. Temminck's ground pangolin in South Africa typically covers between 200 and 700 metres per foraging bout, moving slowly and methodically as it searches for ant and termite colonies.

Q: Why do pangolins roll into a ball?

Pangolins roll into a ball as a defensive mechanism. When threatened, they tuck their head and limbs beneath their body and curl their muscular tail tightly around themselves, forming an armoured sphere of overlapping keratin scales. This posture protects their soft underside from predators. The scales are sharp-edged and can cause injury to any animal attempting to pry the ball open. In the wild, this defence is highly effective against natural predators such as lions and hyenas, though it unfortunately makes pangolins easy to pick up by human poachers.

Published 11 June 2026 | 8 min read

Pangolins are among the most biomechanically unusual mammals on earth. Covered in overlapping keratin scales, equipped with powerful forelimbs and possessing a muscular tail that can exceed their body length, these animals have evolved locomotor adaptations unlike those of any other living mammal. They walk with their claws curled inward, some species stride on two legs, and all of them can swim.

This article examines how pangolins move across ground, through trees and across water, with particular reference to Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) in South Africa.

How Pangolins Walk: Bipedal and Quadrupedal Gaits

Quadrupedal walking with curled claws

The default mode of travel for most pangolin species is quadrupedal walking, but their gait differs markedly from that of other mammals. Pangolins possess exceptionally long, curved claws on their forelimbs -- adaptations for tearing open termite mounds. These claws are too long to be placed flat on the ground, so pangolins curl them inward and walk on the outer edges or knuckles of their forepaws. This gives them a distinctive shuffling appearance. The hind feet are planted flat for stability, while the tucked forelimbs swing forward in a measured rhythm. Temminck's ground pangolin in the South African bushveld moves this way during nightly foraging, methodically scanning the ground before pausing to excavate prey.

Bipedal locomotion and tail balance

Several species are also capable of bipedal walking. The giant ground pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) is the most frequently documented bipedal walker, but the behaviour has also been recorded in Temminck's ground pangolin and some Asian species. When walking bipedally, the pangolin holds its forelimbs close to the chest and shifts its centre of mass rearward over the pelvis. The heavily muscled tail presses against the ground or trails behind to provide balance. This posture is typically adopted over short distances when scanning the environment or moving between foraging patches.

South African field note: Researchers tracking Temminck's ground pangolins in Limpopo have observed brief bipedal episodes at termite mound entrances, where individuals rise onto their hind legs to sniff the air before committing to excavation -- suggesting bipedalism serves a sensory scouting function.

Tree Climbing in Arboreal Species

Four of the eight pangolin species are primarily arboreal: the white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis), the black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and the Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis).

Prehensile tails and grip mechanics

The most striking arboreal adaptation is the prehensile tail -- long, muscular and equipped with a bare tactile pad at the tip for friction against bark. The black-bellied pangolin has the longest tail relative to body size of any mammal, up to twice its head-and-body length. This tail wraps fully around branches and supports the animal's entire weight, allowing it to hang suspended while foraging for arboreal ant colonies.

Climbing involves a coordinated sequence: forelimb claws are driven into bark for anchorage, hind limbs push the body upward, and the tail wraps around the trunk to prevent backward slippage. Descents are performed headfirst, with the tail providing a braking mechanism.

Ground pangolins and climbing

Ground-dwelling species, including Temminck's ground pangolin, are not habitual climbers. Their tails lack the prehensile adaptation and their greater body mass makes arboreal movement impractical. However, juvenile Temminck's ground pangolins have been observed climbing into low shrubs, suggesting some residual climbing ability persists.

Swimming Ability: How Pangolins Cross Water

Despite their dense scale armour, pangolins are competent swimmers observed crossing rivers, streams and flooded terrain in both Asia and Africa.

Buoyancy through stomach inflation

Before entering water, pangolins gulp air and inflate their stomachs, creating an internal flotation device that offsets the weight of their scales. Once afloat, they propel themselves with paddling limb movements and lateral sweeps of the tail. The swimming gait is slow but sustained, and individuals have been recorded crossing water bodies several metres wide. For Temminck's ground pangolin, whose South African range includes riverine habitats in the Lowveld and along the Limpopo drainage, the ability to cross seasonal watercourses helps maintain home range connectivity.

Conservation relevance: Rivers and streams do not necessarily form barriers to pangolin dispersal. This has implications for habitat corridor planning in South Africa, where conservation managers should consider water crossings as potential movement pathways rather than impassable boundaries.

Speed and Gait Analysis

Pangolins are not built for speed. Temminck's ground pangolin typically walks at approximately 3 to 5 kilometres per hour during foraging, moving with its nose close to the ground to detect ant and termite colonies before stopping to excavate. A single foraging bout may cover 200 to 700 metres over several hours, with frequent pauses for digging.

When alarmed, pangolins can increase their walking speed briefly, but the curled-claw forelimb posture does not permit the rapid limb cycling required for a true run. Instead of fleeing, they rely on their primary defensive behaviour. Arboreal species tend to be slower on the ground but faster in the canopy, where prehensile tails and lighter body mass allow fluid movement between branches. The giant ground pangolin, the largest species at up to 33 kilograms, moves most slowly on open ground but covers the greatest absolute distances per night.

Defensive Locomotion: Rolling Into a Ball

When threatened, a pangolin tucks its head between its forelegs, draws its limbs beneath its body and curls its tail tightly over the top, forming a nearly impenetrable sphere of interlocking scales. Lions, leopards and hyenas have all been observed failing to open a fully curled pangolin. The sharp posterior edges of the scales can lacerate the mouth and paws of any predator attempting to pry the ball apart, and some pangolins use a sawing motion by contracting their musculature to actively cut anything pressed against the surface.

Rolling as evasion

On sloped terrain, curled pangolins can roll downhill to escape threats, using gravity as a passive evasion mechanism. The animal does not actively control direction during a roll, but the momentum can carry it several metres from the threat source, buying time to uncurl and move away.

Tragically, the same defensive strategy that protects pangolins against lions makes them vulnerable to human poachers. A curled pangolin is easily picked up and carried away -- a mismatch between an effective anti-predator adaptation and the novel threat of human exploitation that remains a central challenge in pangolin conservation.

Biomechanical Research and Applications

Pangolin locomotion has attracted growing interest from biomechanical engineers and robotics researchers, with applications spanning materials science, robotics and geotechnical engineering.

Scale articulation and flexible armour

The way pangolin scales overlap while permitting full-body curling has inspired research into flexible protective materials. Each scale is anchored at its base but overlaps its neighbours at the edges, creating a system that is rigid under compression but flexible under bending -- a model for protective gear and industrial shielding.

Locomotion robotics

The pangolin's ability to transition between quadrupedal walking, bipedal standing, climbing and swimming makes it an attractive model for multi-terrain robots. Research groups have developed pangolin-inspired prototypes that mimic the curled-claw gait and tail-assisted climbing, aiming to traverse obstacle-rich terrain with applications in search-and-rescue and environmental monitoring.

Digging mechanics

Pangolin forelimb digging efficiency has been studied for geotechnical applications. Analysing the claw geometry, joint mechanics and muscle arrangement provides insights into more efficient drilling and tunnelling tool design.

Temminck's Ground Pangolin: Movement Patterns in South Africa

GPS telemetry studies in the Limpopo, North West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces have built a detailed picture of how Temminck's ground pangolin moves through its home range. Adult males maintain larger home ranges than females, typically covering 2 to 10 square kilometres depending on habitat quality and prey density. Nightly foraging tracks follow established routes between known foraging sites and den locations, with individuals returning to productive termite mounds over successive nights until the colony is depleted.

Seasonal variation is pronounced. During the warm, wet summer months (October to March), pangolins range more widely and forage for longer periods. In winter, foraging bouts shorten, distances decrease and individuals may remain in their dens for consecutive days during cold spells -- a contraction linked to thermoregulatory constraints and reduced prey surface activity. Understanding these movement patterns is essential for designing effective protected area boundaries and wildlife corridors in South Africa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can pangolins swim?

Yes, pangolins can swim. They inflate their stomachs with gulped air before entering water, which increases buoyancy and prevents their heavy scales from pulling them under. They propel themselves using paddling limb movements and lateral tail sweeps. Both ground-dwelling and arboreal species have been observed swimming across rivers and streams.

Do pangolins walk on two legs or four?

Pangolins use both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion. Ground species typically walk on all fours, curling their front claws inward to protect the sharp digging tips. Some species, particularly the giant ground pangolin, also walk bipedally on their hind legs, using their heavy tail as a counterbalance. Bipedal walking is usually brief and may serve a sensory scouting function.

How do pangolins climb trees?

Arboreal pangolins climb using sharp, curved claws driven into bark for grip, combined with prehensile tails that wrap around branches for anchoring. The black-bellied pangolin's tail can support its full body weight, allowing it to hang from branches while foraging. Ground-dwelling species do not habitually climb, though juveniles may ascend low vegetation.

How fast can a pangolin run?

Pangolins are not fast. They walk at approximately 3 to 5 kilometres per hour during foraging. Their curled-claw forelimb posture prevents a true running gait. When threatened, rather than fleeing at speed, pangolins curl into a defensive ball of armoured scales. Temminck's ground pangolin in South Africa typically covers 200 to 700 metres per foraging bout, moving slowly and methodically.

Why do pangolins roll into a ball?

Rolling into a ball is a pangolin's primary defence against predators. They tuck their head and limbs beneath the body and wrap their muscular tail tightly around themselves, forming a sphere of overlapping keratin scales. The scales' sharp edges can cut any animal that tries to pry the ball open. This defence works well against lions and hyenas but unfortunately makes pangolins easy for human poachers to collect.