Pangolins are the only mammals on Earth covered in scales, and they play a surprisingly large role in keeping tropical ecosystems healthy. A single adult pangolin can eat more than 70 million insects per year, making these animals one of nature’s most effective pest controllers. But their importance extends well beyond appetite. Pangolins aerate soil, recycle nutrients, create shelter for other wildlife, and hold a unique place in both evolutionary history and human culture.
Natural Pest Control on a Massive Scale
Pangolins eat almost nothing but ants and termites. That 70-million-insect annual diet isn’t just impressive as a number. It translates into real population control for insects that, left unchecked, can devastate forests, croplands, and wooden structures. Termites alone cause billions of dollars in damage worldwide each year, and pangolins are among the few wild predators that specialize in keeping those colonies in check.
To reach their prey, pangolins rip apart rotting logs, tear open termite mounds, and dig through compacted earth. This foraging style doesn’t just feed the pangolin. It physically breaks down organic matter, speeding up decomposition and cycling minerals back into the soil. In tropical forests and savannahs where nutrient turnover is critical, that mechanical work matters more than it might sound.
Soil Health and Shelter for Other Species
Pangolins are prolific diggers. Several species excavate deep burrows for sleeping and nesting, and this constant digging turns over layers of soil, mixes in organic material, and creates air pockets that help water and roots penetrate deeper. Neil Greenwood, a wildlife rescue director at IFAW, has called them “little gardeners” for exactly this reason: they aerate and enrich the ground wherever they live.
Once a pangolin abandons a burrow, it doesn’t go to waste. Other animals move in. Reptiles, small mammals, and invertebrates all use old pangolin burrows as shelter, nesting sites, or refuges from predators and extreme temperatures. In ecosystems where natural cavities are scarce, these burrows become a shared resource that supports broader species diversity.
An Irreplaceable Evolutionary Lineage
Pangolins belong to the order Pholidota, and they have no close living relatives. They are the only mammals with large, overlapping keratin scales covering nearly their entire bodies. That keratin is the same protein found in human fingernails, but in pangolins it forms a flexible armor unlike anything else in the mammal family tree. Eight species exist today: four in Asia (the Chinese, Sunda, Philippine, and Indian pangolins) and four in Africa (the white-bellied, black-bellied, giant, and Temminck’s pangolins).
Because of this unique biology and the severe threats they face, pangolins are classified as evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. Losing any pangolin species wouldn’t just mean one fewer animal on a list. It would erase an entire branch of mammalian evolution with no backup, no close cousin to fill the gap.
Cultural and Spiritual Significance
In parts of Africa and Asia, pangolins carry deep cultural weight that goes beyond wildlife appreciation. Among the Gbaya people in Cameroon, older community members have described the giant pangolin as a sacred animal, with cultural taboos forbidding its hunting or consumption. Breaking that taboo is believed to bring serious, even fatal, consequences. In the Vute ethnic group, the giant pangolin is considered a totem animal, while among the Baveuck, its meat is reserved exclusively for chiefs.
These traditions reflect a long-standing recognition that pangolins occupy a special place in the natural world. In communities where such beliefs persist, they can function as informal conservation systems, limiting hunting pressure in ways that formal laws sometimes struggle to achieve.
The Scale of the Trafficking Crisis
Pangolins are widely described as the most trafficked mammals on the planet, and the numbers support that claim. Between 2016 and 2024, seizures of pangolin products involved an estimated half a million pangolins across 75 countries and 178 trade routes, according to IUCN data. Scales accounted for 99% of confiscated parts. And those seizures represent only a fraction of the actual trade, since not all shipments are detected.
The demand is driven largely by traditional medicine practices in parts of Asia and Africa, where pangolin scales are used to treat ailments like swelling and pain. Yet the scales are made of keratin, the same material as your fingernails, and there is no scientific evidence that they provide medicinal benefits. Media reports once claimed that pangolin scales contain tramadol, a synthetic painkiller, but laboratory testing found no trace of tramadol in any pangolin scale specimens. The demand persists despite this, highlighting how difficult it is to shift deeply rooted cultural practices through science alone.
Trafficking pressure has been especially devastating in Asia, where steep population declines have hit Chinese, Sunda, and Philippine pangolins hardest. Since 2008, trafficking has increasingly shifted to African species, with scales flowing mainly from West and Central Africa to Asian markets.
What Happens When Pangolins Disappear
Removing pangolins from an ecosystem doesn’t just affect insect numbers. It triggers a chain of consequences. Without pangolins suppressing termite and ant colonies, those populations can surge, accelerating wood decay in forests, damaging crops, and potentially shifting the balance among other insect-eating species competing for the same food sources. The soil loses a key source of aeration and nutrient mixing. Burrow-dependent animals lose shelter. The ecosystem doesn’t collapse overnight, but it becomes measurably less resilient.
In agricultural landscapes, the loss is particularly relevant. Termites are a major pest for crops and timber, and pangolins provide free, ongoing pest control that no human intervention fully replicates. As habitats shrink and pangolin populations decline, the communities living closest to these ecosystems are often the first to feel the effects.