The Ground Pangolin of Southern Africa
Summary by Coral Birss and Bulelani Dyonase, CapeNature Scientific Services
The Ground Pangolin Smutsia temminckii (synonymn Manis temminckii), is the most
widespread African pangolin species, recorded from south-eastern Chad, through South Sudan, much
of East Africa and southern Africa as far south as the Northern Cape and North West Provinces of
South Africa and northeast KwaZulu-Natal Province (Pietersen et al. 2014, Skinner & Chimimba 2005).
It is a rare, scale-covered mammal, about the size of a house cat; it could be described as a walking
pinecone, scaled anteater or a friendly crocodile.
It is described as a predominantly solitary, terrestrial species that inhabits
mainly savanna woodland in low-lying regions with moderate to dense
scrubs including high rainfall area, rocky hills but excluding forest and
desert (Stuart 2007).
The most important habitat requirements are a sufficient population of the
various ant and termite prey species and the availability of dens or aboveground debris in which to shelter. The female gives birth to a single young
after a gestation period of approximately 105-140 days (Pietersen et al.
2014). When threatened it curls into a ball to protect the head and
underparts as its anti-predation adaptation.
Pangolins have very small eyes and poor eyesight. They rely greatly on their strong sense of smell as
well as their hearing to locate prey items. They dig into ant mounds with their powerful claws and
then use their long, flicking tongue to pick up their prey.
They have one of the longest tongues in the mammal kingdom. The long tubular protractible
tongue is used along with their long claws once located an aggregation of ants or termites to open
underground galleries and followed by rapid insertion of the tongue to collect termites. Hence they
Pangolin plays an important ecological role in controlling certain insect species such as termites and
ants.
The long, sticky tongue extends back into a special cavity in its abdomen and is actually longer than
the whole body of the animal and is drawn into a protective sheath when not feeding.
Pangolins have no teeth and consume their prey whole. They have a unique stomach to digest the
food. The stomach of pangolins contains small rocks and pebbles which are consumed to aid in
digestion. The stones together with strong stomach walls which have protruding points
enable the animals to crush and break down their food to aid digestion. Feeding is
presumably reliant on the ability of the animal to move its body due to the required mechanics of the
stomach and the physiology of the tongue.
Interestingly, the ants which the pangolins consume contain formic acid – ant venom, which means
that pangolins do not need to produce hydrochloric acid to promote digestion as is the case with most
other mammals - their food conveniently helps to digest itself. This also means that ants are a very
important dietary requirement.
They listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red Data List of
Threatened Species (IUCN). According to Pietersen et al (2014), it is resulted by an ongoing and
projected future population reduction of 30-40% over a 27 year period based primarily on ongoing
exploitation for traditional medicine and bushmeat throughout the species' range and evidence of
increased intercontinental trade to Asia. Although present in a number of protected areas across their
range, and protected by law in most range countries, over-exploitation for medicinal use is occurring
in South Africa and is increasingly focused on core conservation areas (Brautigam et al. 1994).
The sad fact is that most South Africans have never seen a live Pangolin and probably never will.
Hence it is suggested that there is a need to develop and enforce protective legislation over much of
its range. Projects should be initiated to investigate current population densities, distribution range
and rate of population decline through anthropogenic influences.
References
IUCN. 1996. IUCN Red List Categories. Prepared by the IUCN Species Survival Commission. IUCN,
Gland, Switzerland.
Pietersen, D., Waterman, C., Hywood, L., Rankin, P. & Soewu, D. 2014. Smutsia temminckii. The
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Cited on 19 September
2014.
Skinner, J.D & Chimimba, C.T. 2005. The mammals of the Southern African Subregion (3ed.).
Cambridge University Press, Cape Town.
Stuart, C.T & Stuart, M.D. 2007. Field guide to mammals of South Africa (4ed.). Struik Nature, Cape
Town.
Brautigam, A., Howes, J., Humphreys, T. & Hutton, J. 1994. Recent information on the status and
utilization of African Pangolin. Traffic Bulletin, 15(1)