Pangolins and Biodiversity Hotspots: Where These Ancient Mammals Survive
Pangolins have existed for roughly 80 million years, making them one of the oldest surviving lineages of placental mammals. Today all eight species face serious threats from trafficking and habitat loss. What makes their situation especially significant is the degree to which their remaining ranges overlap with the world's recognised biodiversity hotspots — regions that harbour extraordinary concentrations of endemic species while simultaneously experiencing severe habitat destruction.
This overlap directly shapes where conservation funding is allocated and how protected areas are designed. For pangolins, being embedded within biodiversity hotspots means that their fate is bound to the broader health of some of the most ecologically valuable environments on Earth.
What Are Biodiversity Hotspots?
The biodiversity hotspot concept was first formalised by British ecologist Norman Myers in 1988 and later refined by Conservation International. To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 endemic vascular plant species, and it must have lost 70 per cent or more of its original primary vegetation. These thresholds ensure that hotspots represent areas where biological richness and conservation urgency converge.
There are currently 36 recognised biodiversity hotspots worldwide. Together they cover just 2.5 per cent of the Earth's land surface, yet they support more than half of all plant species found nowhere else and approximately 43 per cent of endemic bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species. On average, hotspots retain less than 15 per cent of their original habitat.
Which Biodiversity Hotspots Do Pangolins Inhabit?
All eight pangolin species — four in Africa and four in Asia — occur within or adjacent to recognised biodiversity hotspots. The degree of overlap varies by species, but the pattern is consistent: pangolins are concentrated in regions that are simultaneously rich in life and under extreme pressure.
African pangolins and their hotspots
Temminck's ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), the species most familiar to South African conservationists, ranges across savannas and woodland from Chad to South Africa. In the southern portion of its range, it overlaps with the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot along the eastern seaboard and with the Cape Floristic Region in the Western Cape. While more commonly associated with bushveld habitats, the fringes of its range intersect with hotspot boundaries where savanna transitions into coastal forest and thicket.
The giant ground pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) occupies the forest-savanna mosaics of Central and West Africa, placing it within the Guinean Forests of West Africa hotspot and the Eastern Afromontane hotspot. The white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) and the black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla) are arboreal species found almost entirely within the Guinean Forests hotspot.
Asian pangolins and their hotspots
The overlap is even more pronounced in Asia. The Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) inhabits the Sundaland hotspot — encompassing Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Java — one of the most species-rich yet heavily deforested regions on the planet. The Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis) is endemic to the Palawan island group within the Philippines hotspot. The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) ranges across parts of the Indo-Burma hotspot, while the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) overlaps with the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot.
Why the Overlap Between Pangolins and Hotspots Matters
This co-occurrence carries practical implications for conservation strategy at multiple levels.
Umbrella species potential
Pangolins range over large areas and require intact habitat with healthy invertebrate prey populations and connected landscapes. Protecting sufficient habitat for viable pangolin populations inherently shelters a wide array of co-occurring species. In this sense, pangolins function as umbrella species within hotspot ecosystems, where safeguarding their habitat requirements benefits the broader biological community.
Shared conservation infrastructure
Biodiversity hotspots already attract significant conservation attention and funding. Pangolin conservation efforts can build on this existing infrastructure — protected areas, monitoring networks and community initiatives — rather than starting from scratch.
Indicator value
Because pangolins are sensitive to habitat degradation, their population trends can serve as indicators of ecosystem health within hotspots. Declining pangolin numbers may signal broader ecological deterioration that affects many other species simultaneously.
Threats to Pangolins Within Biodiversity Hotspots
The same forces that created biodiversity hotspots — massive habitat loss in biologically rich regions — continue to threaten the species within them.
Habitat destruction and fragmentation
Agricultural expansion is the dominant driver of habitat loss across nearly all pangolin-bearing hotspots. In Sundaland, industrial oil palm plantations have converted vast areas of lowland forest. In West Africa, cocoa and rubber farming continue to reduce the Guinean Forests hotspot. In South Africa, sugarcane cultivation and urban sprawl along the KwaZulu-Natal coast encroach on the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot.
Fragmentation compounds the problem. Pangolins require connectivity between foraging areas and den sites. When habitat is broken into isolated patches by roads, fences and cleared land, populations become genetically isolated and vulnerable to local extinction.
Illegal trafficking
Pangolins remain the most trafficked wild mammals on Earth. Demand for their scales in traditional medicine markets drives poaching across every hotspot where pangolins occur. Within African hotspots, bushmeat hunting adds further pressure. The intersection of poverty, weak law enforcement and proximity to trade routes makes hotspot-adjacent communities susceptible to exploitation by trafficking networks.
Climate change
Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and increased fire frequency alter hotspot habitats in ways that affect pangolin survival. In southern Africa, prolonged droughts reduce termite and ant activity, limiting the food available to Temminck's ground pangolin. In Southeast Asian hotspots, intensified cyclones damage the forest canopy that arboreal pangolins depend on for shelter.
Conservation Strategies at the Hotspot-Pangolin Intersection
Effective conservation requires strategies that address both species-specific needs and the broader landscape pressures that define hotspot regions.
Expanding and connecting protected areas
Many hotspot protected areas were established to conserve plant diversity rather than pangolins. Ensuring these reserves also support pangolin populations may require expanding boundaries to include savanna habitats or establishing corridors between forest fragments. In South Africa, conservancies in Limpopo and Mpumalanga that link private game reserves to formal protected areas provide models for this approach.
Community-based conservation
Hotspot regions are often densely populated by people who depend on natural resources. In southern Africa, community wildlife conservancies have demonstrated that when local people receive tangible benefits — through ecotourism revenue or employment in monitoring programmes — they become active protectors of wildlife, including pangolins.
Integrating pangolins into hotspot planning
Spatial prioritisation models can incorporate pangolin distribution data alongside plant endemism and other biodiversity metrics. This means including pangolin occurrence records, home range data and connectivity requirements in the analyses that guide land-use decisions within hotspots.
Strengthening anti-trafficking enforcement
Ranger patrols, intelligence-led investigations and cross-border cooperation are essential to disrupt trafficking networks within hotspot regions. South Africa's Green Scorpions environmental enforcement units and dedicated pangolin crime investigations in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provide examples of targeted enforcement that can be replicated across other hotspot countries.
Long-term monitoring and research
Sustained monitoring within hotspots is critical for measuring conservation effectiveness. GPS telemetry, camera trapping and community sighting networks all contribute essential data. Prioritising research in under-studied hotspots — particularly the Guinean Forests, Indo-Burma and Sundaland — would fill important knowledge gaps.
The South African Perspective
South Africa occupies a unique position in the global pangolin-hotspot picture. The country contains three recognised biodiversity hotspots — the Cape Floristic Region, the Succulent Karoo and the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany corridor — alongside extensive bushveld habitats where Temminck's ground pangolin is most commonly encountered. This means South African conservation strategies must address pangolin needs across a range of ecological contexts.
Institutions such as the African Pangolin Working Group and multiple provincial conservation authorities coordinate research, rehabilitation and law enforcement across these varied landscapes, illustrating how a country-level approach can bridge the gap between hotspot-focused conservation and broader pangolin protection.
The survival of pangolins within the world's biodiversity hotspots is not guaranteed. But the concentration of conservation resources and public awareness in these regions provides a foundation on which effective protection can be built — if political will and financial investment keep pace with the threats.