Pangolin Artificial Breeding Methods and Techniques, Relevant Certificates Must Be Applied For
SummarySite: The wild burrow environment of pangolins needs to be simulated. Feeding: Each pangolin needs to eat 80-120g of termites per day. Management: Actively clean and disinfect food bowls and water bowls. Disease prevention and control: Pangolins have poor adaptability and are prone to diseases such as enteritis, pneumonia and dermatitis; if any abnormality is found, diagnose and treat it promptly. Note: Artificial breeding of pangolins can only be carried out after obtaining the relevant certificates; at present, artificial breeding of pangolins is still at the experimental stage.
Can Pangolins Be Artificially Bred?
The pangolin is a second-class protected animal in China, and hunting and eating it are prohibited; illegal hunting, smuggling or selling of pangolins is a serious illegal act.
If pangolins are to be artificially bred, this can only be carried out after obtaining the relevant certificates. A written "Report on the Application for a Wildlife Domestication and Breeding License" must be submitted to the local relevant department; after the provincial Forestry Department approves and issues the "Wildlife Breeding and Domestication License," breeding can begin.
Pangolin Breeding Methods and Techniques
1. Breeding site construction
The pangolin is a mammal that lives a burrowing life all year round. It is quite wild by nature and has poor adaptability to the environment, so artificial breeding must simulate its wild habits and build suitable breeding rooms for it.
Generally, the breeding room can be divided into an inner room and an activity yard. The activity yard area should be controlled at about 60 sq m, and the ground of both should be paved with cement. A 2m-high wall should be built around the activity yard, and an underground water pool and manure pool should be built inside the yard; because pangolins have the habit of digging holes to bury their droppings when defecating, soil should be placed in the manure pool. The inner breeding room can be divided into several small chambers, and in the middle of each small chamber a hemispherical burrow nest with a diameter of 60cm and a depth of 40cm should be made, with some cut dry rice straw spread inside the nest and a wooden lid placed on top; 1 pangolin is kept in each small chamber.
2. Catching and purchasing seed pangolins
At present, the pangolin stock used for breeding in China cannot be artificially reproduced, and basically wild pangolins are used as stock. However, the pangolin is a protected animal in China, and hunting, catching and trading it in any illegal form are prohibited. Therefore, to solve the problem of stock, approval from the relevant departments is required before going up the mountains to hunt. Summer and autumn are the breeding season for pangolins, so hunting is relatively easy then.
3. Feeding management
Pangolins have rather special feeding habits; they specifically eat ants. Each pangolin needs to eat 80-120g of termites per day. During artificial breeding, it is relatively difficult to raise them by catching termites, so termites can be introduced to reproduce in large numbers by digging pits in the ground and spreading rotten pine trunks, branches and leaves in the pits. Newly introduced pangolins will not eat artificial feed; they should be fed termites or black ants, and after they gradually adapt, the proportion of feed can be gradually changed until they slowly get used to artificial feed; if an individual pangolin refuses to eat for a relatively long time, it can be force-fed by hand. Artificially prepared feed must ensure that the proportions of the various ingredients are appropriate and palatable.
4. Daily management
Regularly clean and disinfect the breeding room, frequently replace the soil in the water dispenser and manure pool, clean and disinfect the food bowls and water bowls every day, feed the pangolins once a day at a fixed time and in a fixed amount, with 150-200g of artificially prepared feed each time, and after the pangolins finish eating, put them into the activity yard to move around for 2-3 hours.
5. Disease prevention
When pangolins change from wild to domestic, their adaptability to the environment is poor in the early stage, and they are prone to diseases such as enteritis, pneumonia and dermatitis. In the early stage of artificial breeding, their condition must be observed at all times, and if any abnormality is found, diagnose it promptly and take corresponding measures for treatment. The temperature of the inner room for raising pangolins is best controlled at 18-25°C, and the relative humidity controlled at 60-70%, ensuring that the room is warm in winter and cool in summer, so as to promote the growth and development of pangolins.