What Do Pangolins Eat? Termites, Ants and the Full Diet

Published: 25 June 2026 • AlphaPanga Research Team

Pangolins are among the most specialised feeders on Earth. Unlike most mammals, which switch between food sources as conditions change, pangolins have evolved to eat almost nothing but ants and termites. Their elongated skull, toothless jaw, extraordinary tongue, reinforced claws and keratinous stomach all reflect millions of years of adaptation to this single, narrow niche.

Primary Diet: Termites and Ants

All eight pangolin species are obligate myrmecophages, meaning their diet is physiologically committed to ants and termites. The precise prey mix varies by species, season and habitat, but never strays far from these two insect groups.

Termites from the families Termitidae and Rhinotermitidae dominate the diet of most African species. Ants from genera including Dorylus, Anoplolepis and Camponotus are also taken. Asian pangolin species show a stronger preference for ants, particularly arboreal species found in tree bark and rotting wood.

Pangolins are selective foragers. Tracking data shows that individuals learn the locations of productive colonies within their home range and return to them repeatedly, allowing partial colony recovery between visits. Thick eyelids, closable nostrils and overlapping scale armour protect them from biting defenders during feeding raids.

Tongue Anatomy: An Extraordinary Feeding Tool

The pangolin's tongue is one of the most remarkable structures in mammalian anatomy. When fully extended it can reach up to 40 centimetres beyond the tip of the snout — longer than the animal's head and neck combined. In larger species the extended tongue may exceed total body length.

Unlike most mammals, whose tongues root at the hyoid bone in the throat, a pangolin's tongue anchors deep inside the body, near the sternum and in some species all the way back to attachment points close to the pelvis. When not feeding, the tongue withdraws into a long muscular sheath inside the chest cavity rather than folding within the mouth.

The tongue surface is coated in thick, viscous saliva produced by enlarged salivary glands. Insects adhere on contact and are drawn back into the mouth in a fraction of a second. A single lick into a dense termite chamber retrieves dozens of insects at once, and the tongue executes multiple extensions per second at peak feeding rate.

A pangolin feeding on an active termite mound operates like a biological vacuum, cycling its tongue at high speed and ingesting hundreds of insects with each sequence of strikes.

No Teeth: How Pangolins Process Food

Pangolins have no teeth at all, not even vestigial remnants. The jaw is a slender, toothless structure shaped purely to direct the tongue toward prey. This is unusual even among insectivorous mammals; pangolins and giant anteaters represent convergent evolution toward complete toothlessness, arriving at similar solutions from entirely separate ancestral lines.

Food processing happens in the stomach. A pangolin's stomach is heavily muscled and lined with hard keratinous spines that grind insects as the stomach contracts. Many individuals also deliberately swallow small stones and coarse grit that accumulate and function as a gizzard, further fragmenting chitinous exoskeletons. Stones recovered from dissected pangolin stomachs are typically worn smooth, indicating prolonged retention and active use.

Foraging Behaviour: Nocturnal and Smell-Driven

Pangolins are almost entirely nocturnal. They spend the day in self-excavated burrows or, in the case of arboreal species, in hollow trees, and emerge after dark to forage. Their eyesight is poor; they rely primarily on a well-developed sense of smell to locate insect colonies. The chemical signatures released by termite mounds and ant trails guide them to productive sites across large home ranges.

On reaching a colony, a pangolin deploys its front claws to break through hardened mound walls or tear open rotting bark. A ground pangolin can excavate more than a metre into compacted earth to reach deeper termite galleries. After feeding, it moves on. A nightly circuit may cover two to five kilometres and take in multiple colony visits.

How Much Do Pangolins Eat?

The quantities consumed are striking for an animal of this size. Estimates based on captive feeding data and gut content analysis suggest that a single adult pangolin consumes approximately 70 million individual insects per year. On a nightly basis this amounts to several hundred grams of insects, a significant proportion of the animal's own body weight.

This intake reflects the low caloric density of ants and termites. A pangolin must process large volumes to meet its energy needs, which is why every element of its feeding apparatus matters. Injury, stress or captivity-induced disruption to any part of this system compromises the animal's survival rapidly.

Ecosystem Role: Pest Control and Soil Health

The dietary specialism of pangolins makes them significant actors in the ecosystems they inhabit. By consuming tens of millions of insects per year, a single pangolin provides measurable natural pest regulation. In agricultural landscapes bordering bushveld, this can translate into reduced termite pressure on crops and structures.

Foraging digging also contributes to soil health. Each night a pangolin creates small excavations that loosen compacted soil, improve water infiltration and mix organic material from different depths. For more on how pangolins interact with farming landscapes, see our article on pangolin-friendly farming in South Africa.

Species Variation: Ground Pangolins vs Tree Pangolins

Ground Pangolins

Ground-dwelling species, including Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) and the giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea), rely heavily on subterranean termite colonies. Their robust claws and powerful forelimbs are built to break through the concrete-hard outer walls of large mounds. The giant pangolin, the largest of all pangolin species at up to 33 kilograms, concentrates on large termite mounds that offer a high return of insects per excavation effort.

Tree Pangolins

Arboreal species such as the African tree pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) have lighter builds, prehensile tails and smaller claws suited to climbing. Their diet is weighted toward arboreal ants in tree bark, epiphytic growth and decaying wood. They are less capable of attacking large ground mounds and instead exploit the distributed network of ant colonies through forest canopy and understorey.

South Africa: Temminck's Ground Pangolin in the Bushveld

Temminck's ground pangolin, the only pangolin species native to South Africa, inhabits the Bushveld, Savanna and Grassland biomes of the northern and eastern regions of the country. Its diet within these landscapes centres on termite species from the genus Trinervitermes and harvester termites of the genus Microhodotermes, supplemented by ant species including Anoplolepis custodiens.

Termite mound density shapes the movement ecology of this species directly. Where mounds are abundant, home ranges are smaller and foraging circuits are shorter. In degraded landscapes where mound density has declined, pangolins must travel further each night to meet their nutritional needs, which increases their exposure to roads, snares and human activity. For an overview of conservation efforts affecting this species in South Africa, see our article on pangolin rehabilitation in South Africa.

Diet in Captivity: A Persistent Challenge

The extreme dietary specialism of pangolins creates one of the most persistent obstacles in rescue and rehabilitation work. Wild-caught or injured pangolins often refuse to eat in captivity. Their feeding behaviour is triggered by darkness, familiar scent landscapes and the physical cues of natural terrain; a confined, unfamiliar environment disrupts these triggers.

Successful rehabilitation programmes have found that sourcing live termite colonies from the animal's home habitat is the most reliable way to initiate feeding. Some facilities have achieved limited success introducing mealworms or ant pupae as partial substitutes, but acceptance is variable and transitions must be gradual. Pangolins that do not eat lose body condition rapidly and develop secondary health complications. This is a significant contributor to the low rehabilitation success rates documented in the scientific literature. For detailed figures on outcomes, see our article on pangolin rehabilitation and release success rates.