A section ranger at Sabi Sand Nature Reserve says he knows exactly what to do about this conservation ordeal. Elsewhere, scientists are also trialling designs.

A pangolin's defence mechanism, honed over millions of years, is a remarkable example of nature's ingenuity. When threatened, the "scaly anteater" curls into a compact ball, its tough scales shielding its vulnerable belly from predators' sharp teeth.

Hard scales outside. Soft bits inside. It's a creative survival strategy for a quirky mammal who walks on its hind legs, with its front legs and tail held aloft.

However, when the pangolin steps over a live wire commonly found on electric fences, it dies helplessly, as its defensive instinct causes it to wrap tightly around the wire.

This is a heartbreaking, deadly twist of fate for the world's only mammal covered in protective scales.

About 2,000 Temminck's pangolins die in this unthinkable way in South Africa annually, according to Dr Darren Pietersen, one of Africa's leading pangolin researchers.

"This new estimate of 2,000 pangolins being killed on fences per year is for all electrified fences -- game farms, game reserves, nature reserves, national parks and livestock fences," Pietersen says, referring to the species' natural local range in northern South Africa. "We have included it in the new South African National...