Pangolin Soil Ecosystem Services: How Pangolins Engineer Healthy Soils
When we think of ecosystem engineers, earthworms and termites spring to mind far sooner than pangolins. Yet across the savannas, bushveld and grasslands of South Africa, Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) quietly reshapes the soil beneath its feet every night. Through relentless digging, selective predation and the simple act of moving through the landscape, pangolins deliver a suite of soil ecosystem services that researchers are only now beginning to quantify. Losing these animals to poaching and habitat destruction means losing not just a species but a functional process that keeps soils productive and ecosystems resilient.
Bioturbation: Turning the Earth from Below
Bioturbation is the mixing and reworking of soil by living organisms. Pangolins are vigorous bioturbators. Each night a foraging Temminck's ground pangolin tears open termite mounds, excavates ant nests and digs exploratory pits across its home range. In a single foraging bout lasting four to six hours, an individual may create dozens of shallow excavations, each displacing soil from depth to the surface.
Research on analogous burrowing mammals in southern African savannas indicates that a medium-sized fossorial mammal can displace between 5 and 12 cubic metres of soil per year. Applied across a viable pangolin population occupying several thousand hectares of Limpopo or Mpumalanga bushveld, the cumulative soil turnover is substantial. This mechanical mixing counteracts the natural tendency of soils to become stratified and compacted, maintaining a loose, friable structure that supports root penetration and microbial colonisation.
Burrow Aeration and Water Infiltration
Every pangolin burrow is a conduit. The tunnels that Temminck's ground pangolin excavates for shelter, and the shallower pits it digs while foraging, create pathways that channel air into the soil profile and draw rainwater below the surface. In the semi-arid regions of the Northern Cape and Limpopo, where annual rainfall is often below 500 mm, these pathways can be the difference between water running off a crusted surface and soaking into the root zone.
Infiltration measurements around mammal burrows in South African grasslands have shown localised increases of 20 to 40 percent compared to undisturbed ground. The effect extends beyond the burrow mouth: as water percolates through the loosened backfill and fractured soil surrounding the tunnel, it recharges deeper moisture reserves that sustain vegetation through dry spells. For rangelands already stressed by drought and overgrazing, the hydraulic services provided by burrowing mammals including pangolins are a quiet but critical buffer against degradation.
Soil aeration and root health
Below-ground oxygen availability limits root growth and microbial activity in compacted soils. Pangolin burrows introduce atmospheric air to depths of a metre or more, stimulating aerobic decomposition and nutrient mineralisation. The result is a zone of enhanced biological activity radiating outward from each burrow, visible in the field as patches of greener, more vigorous vegetation surrounding old excavation sites. This pattern has been documented around pangolin and aardvark burrow complexes across multiple South African biomes.
Nutrient Cycling Through Predation
A single Temminck's ground pangolin consumes an estimated 50 to 70 million ants and termites per year. This predation is not merely a removal of invertebrates from the system; it is a redistribution of nutrients. Ant and termite colonies concentrate nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium in their nest structures, locking these elements away from the broader soil matrix. When a pangolin breaks open a colony and consumes its inhabitants, digestion converts those nutrients into forms that are deposited across the landscape through faecal matter.
Pangolin droppings are rich in chitin fragments, calcium from insect exoskeletons and partially digested organic material. Deposited at scattered points throughout the home range, these droppings create nutrient hotspots that promote localised plant growth and attract secondary decomposers. The pangolin's foraging behaviour thus functions as a nutrient pump, drawing concentrated resources from deep insect nests and spreading them across the surface.
Seed Dispersal Assistance
Although pangolins are obligate insectivores and do not consume fruit, they contribute to seed dispersal through mechanical means. As a pangolin pushes through dense grassland and scrub, seeds from grasses, forbs and woody plants adhere to its overlapping keratin scales. These seeds are transported metres or tens of metres before falling free, often into the loose soil of a freshly dug excavation where germination conditions are favourable.
Additionally, the soil disturbance created by digging buries surface seeds to optimal germination depth and exposes dormant seeds from the soil seed bank. In fire-prone South African grasslands and savannas, this burial can protect seeds from the intense surface heat of grassland fires, effectively banking them for post-fire germination.
Soil Microbiome Effects
Every pangolin excavation introduces organic matter from the surface into deeper soil layers and brings subsoil to the surface. This mixing redistributes microbial communities, inoculating deeper horizons with surface bacteria and fungi while exposing subsurface microbes to oxygen and fresh carbon sources. Preliminary soil sampling around mammal burrows in South African savannas has revealed elevated microbial biomass and diversity compared to adjacent undisturbed soil.
The chitin-rich droppings of pangolins are particularly significant for soil microbiomes. Chitin is a polymer that stimulates the growth of chitinolytic bacteria and fungi, many of which are antagonistic to plant pathogens. By depositing chitin across the landscape, pangolins may inadvertently promote disease-suppressive soil communities, a service with direct relevance to agriculture and food security in regions where pangolins occur alongside cropland and grazing pastures.
Comparison with Other Ecosystem Engineers
Pangolins are not the only soil engineers in southern African landscapes. They work alongside a guild of burrowing and digging mammals, each contributing differently to soil processes.
Aardvarks
The aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is the heavyweight of African soil engineers, excavating extensive burrow systems that persist for decades. Aardvark burrows are deeper and more architecturally complex than pangolin burrows, providing shelter for dozens of secondary species. However, aardvarks and pangolins partition the soil engineering niche: aardvarks create large, permanent structures while pangolins create numerous shallow, dispersed excavations that affect a broader surface area.
Warthogs
Warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) disturb soil primarily through rooting for bulbs and rhizomes. Their digging is shallower and less frequent than pangolin excavation but covers extensive areas, particularly in floodplain and vlei habitats where pangolins are less active. The two species complement each other across habitat gradients.
Spring hares and porcupines
Spring hares and porcupines contribute to bioturbation through burrow construction and maintenance. Their combined effect, together with pangolins and aardvarks, creates a landscape-scale soil engineering service that no single species could deliver alone. The loss of any one member of this guild reduces the overall rate and spatial coverage of soil turnover.
Carbon Sequestration Links
Healthy soils store carbon. By improving soil structure, aeration and water-holding capacity, pangolin bioturbation creates conditions that favour the accumulation of soil organic carbon. Well-aerated soils support denser root networks, and roots are the primary pathway through which atmospheric carbon enters the soil as stable organic matter.
Furthermore, pangolin predation on termites influences the balance between decomposition and carbon storage. Termites are prolific decomposers that release carbon dioxide and methane as they break down plant material. By suppressing termite colony sizes, pangolins may slow the rate of above-ground litter decomposition, allowing more carbon to be incorporated into the soil through slower fungal and bacterial pathways that produce more stable humus. While this effect has not yet been directly quantified for pangolins, the ecological logic is supported by research on termite suppression and carbon flux in African savannas.
Implications for Rangeland and Agriculture
South Africa's rangelands and farmlands benefit from the soil services that pangolins provide, even when farmers and land managers are unaware of their presence. Improved water infiltration reduces erosion on grazing land. Enhanced nutrient cycling supports forage quality for livestock. Disease-suppressive microbiome effects may reduce crop losses in adjacent cultivated fields.
The practical implication is clear: protecting pangolin populations is not only a conservation priority but an investment in soil health. Landowners in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces who maintain pangolin-friendly habitat, including preserving the broader ecosystem role of these animals, are safeguarding a free and self-sustaining soil management service. As South Africa grapples with land degradation affecting an estimated 70 percent of rangeland, every functioning ecosystem engineer counts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do pangolins improve soil health?
Pangolins improve soil health through several mechanisms. Their digging activity turns and loosens compacted soil, a process called bioturbation. Their burrows create channels that improve water infiltration and air circulation underground. By consuming large quantities of ants and termites, pangolins cycle nutrients back into the soil through their droppings. They also inadvertently disperse seeds and fungal spores as they move through vegetation and dig into the earth.
How much soil do pangolins turn over each year?
While direct measurements for pangolins are limited, research on similar-sized burrowing mammals in southern Africa suggests that a single active individual can displace between 5 and 12 cubic metres of soil per year through digging for food and excavating shelter burrows. Across a population, this bioturbation significantly affects soil structure and nutrient distribution at the landscape scale.
Are pangolins considered ecosystem engineers?
Yes, pangolins are considered ecosystem engineers because they physically modify their environment in ways that create or maintain habitats for other organisms. Their burrows provide shelter for reptiles, amphibians, insects and small mammals. Their digging activity alters soil structure, water flow and nutrient availability. These effects extend well beyond the pangolin itself, influencing entire ecological communities.
How do pangolin burrows help with water infiltration?
Pangolin burrows act as conduits that channel rainwater below the soil surface rather than allowing it to run off. The tunnels and excavated chambers increase the soil's capacity to absorb and store water, reducing surface runoff and erosion. In semi-arid South African landscapes, these burrow networks can measurably increase local water infiltration rates, benefiting plant growth in the surrounding area.
Do pangolins help with carbon sequestration in soils?
Pangolins contribute indirectly to soil carbon sequestration. By improving soil aeration and water infiltration, their burrowing activity creates conditions that favour root growth and microbial activity, both of which increase the amount of organic carbon stored in soil. Their predation on termites also influences decomposition rates of plant material, affecting how carbon is processed and retained in the soil rather than released as carbon dioxide.