Detailed Explanation of Key Points in Pangolin Breeding Technology

The pangolin family (Manidae) is one of China's special medicinal animals and has been listed as a national second-class protected animal. In recent years, due to the massive hunting of wild pangolins, wild resources have been greatly damaged. In order to protect wild pangolin resources and fully utilize their medicinal and economic value, at present, many places in China have carried out artificial breeding and rearing of pangolins, and have achieved success.

Medicinal Value of Pangolins

The pangolin is one of China's special medicinal animals and has high medicinal value. Its scales and meat can both be used as medicine. The main medicinal part is its scales, and the medicinal material is named pangolin (Chuanshanjia), which is a precious traditional Chinese medicinal material; pangolin meat is also used medicinally, and the medicinal material is named Lingli. The pangolin is slightly cold in nature and salty in taste, and has effects such as eliminating ulcers and carbuncles, dispelling wind and activating collaterals, unblocking menstruation and promoting lactation, and reducing swelling and relieving pain. It mainly treats sores, carbuncles, swelling and toxins, wind-cold-dampness arthralgia, amenorrhea, and blocked lactation, and is used externally to stop bleeding and relieve pain. Lingli is warm in nature and sweet-astringent in taste, and has effects such as killing parasites, promoting blood circulation, and breaking up hard masses and dispersing blood stasis. It mainly treats arthralgia, amenorrhea, leprosy, and so on.

Artificial Breeding Technology for Pangolins

For artificial breeding of pangolins, one can directly purchase breeding pangolins from specialized breeding units, or, after obtaining approval from the relevant departments, capture them in the wild for breeding.

1. Requirements for the Breeding Site

The breeding site should be warm in winter and cool in summer, with a suitable temperature of 16°C to 32°C. In the high-temperature summer season, attention should be paid to shading and cooling, and in winter, timely cold protection and warmth should be provided. Depending on the situation, breeding methods such as pond type, closed type, burrow type, and wooden box type can be selected.

① Pond-type breeding: In a quiet part of the courtyard, build multiple brick or stone ponds of 20 to 40 sq m and 50 cm high, rectangular or square in shape, with the bottom and walls of the pond plastered with cement to make them firm and smooth so as to prevent pangolins from escaping. Inside the pond, use stones to build several pangolin burrows, pile a large amount of soil on top of them, and separate each burrow individually so they are not connected to one another. Leave an activity area of 5 to 10 sq m in the center of the pond, pile a large amount of soil on it, and plant weeds and small trees to create a good activity area. A large number of trees should be planted around the site to provide shade. In the summer rainy season, there should be something to provide rain cover, and a dedicated drainage channel should be left to prevent rainwater from soaking the burrows.

② Closed-type breeding: Consists of an indoor small house of 2 to 4 sq m and an outdoor activity area of 4 to 6 sq m. Both indoors and outdoors have cement floors. The indoor area is provided with burrows for pangolins to hide and rest in. The activity area is surrounded by walls or wire mesh, and the top of the cage is sealed with wire mesh. Each cage can house 2 to 4 pangolins.

③ Burrow-type breeding: The area can be 20 to 50 sq m, surrounded by walls. The walls are hard and smooth, about 2 m high, with a sandy mud ground and artificial burrows, with a natural living environment such as rockeries and grass. More than 10 pangolins can be raised.

④ Wooden box-type cage: Make one rectangular wooden box. The size of the wooden box should preferably exceed 2 times the body length of the pangolin being raised. It is divided into inner and outer compartments, connected by a round hole, for the animal to freely move in and out for activity and rest.

2. Breeding Methods

Pangolins can breed throughout the year, and each year from April to May they enter the estrus and mating period. After summer begins, it is their peak estrus season. During estrus, females and males live together, and after mating they separate. The delivery period is December or January, with 1 to 2 young per litter, raised by the female in a fixed burrow. The newborn young weighs about 100 grams, has both eyes tightly closed, no scales, and a pale white color, and relies on breast milk for rearing. After about 15 days, it begins to open its eyes, and by then its weight has reached about 200 grams. At 1 month of age, the scales begin to gradually keratinize and turn dark brown; after 2 months of age, its weight can reach more than 1 kg, and it can follow the mother out to forage and lie on the mother's back; at 6 months of age, its weight can reach 1.5 to 2 kg, and it begins to leave the mother to live independently. During the nursing period, the female can still mate again and become pregnant and continue to give birth, generally producing 2 litters per year.

3. Feed Formulation

The natural food of pangolins is termites, but under artificial rearing conditions, catching termites for feeding is not only troublesome but also relatively costly, and it is difficult to meet their growth needs. Therefore, during the breeding process, artificially raised earthworms, fly maggots, yellow mealworms, slugs, and so on should be used in large quantities as natural food. These natural foods are generally buried in the soil near the burrows or in the activity area, and a small number are also distributed inside the burrows. According to their burrowing habits, they will actively feed on them.

In addition to artificially raised natural food, artificial mixed feed is also often used for feeding. Pangolins are carnivorous insect-eating animals, so artificial compound feed should be mainly composed of animal ingredients, while also adding feed additives such as vitamins and minerals to promote their normal growth and development. Commonly used formulation methods generally include: ① 50% silkworm pupa powder, 15% blood meal, 5% cooked eggs, 5% milk powder, 5% yeast powder, 10% wheat flour, 10% soybean flour, 0.05% multivitamins, 0.01% minerals. ② 50% silkworm pupa powder, 5% cooked eggs, 5% milk powder, 10% dry yeast, 25% planting soil, 5% dried pagoda tree leaf powder, 0.02% multivitamins, 0.05% growth hormone.

When preparing artificial feed, the above various ingredients should be crushed and stirred evenly in proportion, then 40% to 50% water should be added, adjusted into a dough or paste, placed in a small shallow dish, and put in the breeding pond for them to eat.

4. Feeding Training

Because pangolins will not actively eat artificial compound feed, training must be carried out before artificial feeding. The specific method is: first do not provide water to the pangolins in the breeding pond, but add more water to the artificial compound feed to make it a thin paste, or grind fish into a paste. In this way, because they cannot tolerate thirst, when thirsty they will actively lick and drink the bait in the feed basin, and gradually begin to actively feed. If the food attraction is not effective, after 3 to 4 days, artificial forced feeding is needed to promote normal gastrointestinal digestion, stimulate appetite, and cause them to eat.

The general formula for artificial forced feeding is: 2.5 grams hydrolyzed protein, 4 grams glucose, 2 yeast tablets, 1 tablet vitamin B1, 1 milliliter pepsin, mixed evenly with 10 milliliters water. When forced feeding, use a plastic eye drop bottle to draw it up. The general forced feeding amount is 4 to 8 milliliters per day for a pangolin weighing 1.2 to 2.5 kg, once a day, mostly in the afternoon. Forced feeding is carried out by two people working together, one person holding the pangolin, and the other inserting the bottle into its mouth and gradually squeezing the bottle along with the pangolin's swallowing movements. After forced feeding is completed, put it back into the pond and continue the artificial compound bait attraction training until it eats on its own.

5. Daily Management

For artificial breeding of pangolins, the breeding site must be kept clean, hygienic, and quiet. The feces in the breeding pond should be cleaned frequently. Generally, every 2 to 3 months, the soil in the activity area should be replaced once, and the breeding site should be disinfected regularly; at the same time, attention should be paid to the occurrence of gastroenteritis and pneumonia.

Collection and Processing of Pangolins

1. Collection

Adult pangolins are first killed, and the meat, bones, and internal organs are removed. The whole skin and scales are peeled off, placed in an aluminum pot, and boiled with clean water and edible alkali. The amount of water is 5 to 7 kg per kg of skin and scales, and the amount of edible alkali is 0.2%. Boil until the skin and scales completely separate, then stop heating, wash with clean water, select the scale pieces, and sun-dry them.

2. Processing Methods

① Vinegar pangolin: First separate according to scale size. Heat fine sand in a pot until it is smooth and easy to stir, then pour in the scales and stir-fry with the sand. Stir-fry until the scales puff up and bulge, the edges curl inward, and the surface is golden yellow, then remove. Screen out the sand, put them into vinegar while hot and stir evenly, take them out and sun-dry, and they become the processed traditional Chinese medicinal material “jiazhu”, also called vinegar pangolin.

② Sand scalding: For sand-scalded pangolin, the sand temperature should preferably be 200 to 220°C. Below 200°C, the pangolin will not puff and curl, and above 220°C, it is easy to scorch.

Because the temperature is difficult to control, if conditions permit, a constant-temperature electric oven can be used for baking. Take pangolin, remove impurities, separate by size, place separately in enamel trays, put in an oven at a constant temperature of 200°C to 220°C, and bake for 3 to 4 minutes, whereupon all will puff and curl and become golden yellow. Remove quickly, cool, and set aside. Baking processing can first improve efficacy. Sand-scalding pangolin can only stir-fry about 100 grams per pot. When the amount of medicinal material is large, it is not easy to stir-fry, the medicinal material is heated unevenly, and there are often some medicinal materials scorched and some not puffed and curled, resulting in “half-cooked pieces”; whereas with baking processing, each enamel tray can hold about 100 grams of medicinal material, and 10 to 12 enamel trays can be placed in the oven at one time, which can increase work efficiency by more than 10 times. Second, it can improve the quality of the decoction pieces. During sand scalding, the heat is not easy to control, which affects the quality of the decoction pieces. With baking processing, the temperature and baking time are easy to control, making the medicinal materials heated evenly.

Pangolins are still relatively common in China, but as people's awareness of pangolins increases, the demand for pangolins is growing, resulting in fewer and fewer wild pangolins. Therefore, in order to protect wild pangolins, many people have taken a fancy to the market for breeding pangolins.