[en] We have used tunnelling spectroscopy (TS) to probe the density of states (DOS) near the Fermi level (E_F) of La_0.8Ca_0.2MnO₃, which shows giant magnetoresistance. The tunnelling current-voltage (I-V) curves and their derivatives (dI/dV) show significant changes for temperatures above and below the ferromagnetic Curie temperature (T_C). We have estimated the energy dependence of the DOS near E_F from the tunnelling spectroscopy data, and this shows a strong temperature dependence, for temperatures above and below T_C. (author). Letter-to-the-editor