Can pangolins be kept? Introduction to captive breeding methods

As a nationally protected animal, can pangolins be bred in captivity? How are pangolins bred? Pangolins can be bred in China, and the current price is about 500 yuan/kg. People love to eat them because the pangolin (Manis spp.) is a valuable raw material for traditional Chinese medicine. It is one of the 14 important endangered wild medicinal animals in China. Due to indiscriminate hunting and habitat destruction, wild resources have declined sharply, to the brink of exhaustion. The Chinese government and the international community have given this extensive attention and importance. The pangolin produced in China has been listed as a national second-class key protected wild animal, and has been classified as vulnerable in the China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals·Mammals. The international organization IUCN has listed all pangolin species in CITES Appendix II.

Can pangolins be kept? How to breed pangolins

In order to protect China's wild pangolin resources and achieve sustainable use, this is not only necessary for protecting species diversity and maintaining ecological balance, but also for realizing the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine in China. Analyzing the current status of China's pangolin resources and discussing protection strategies can not only provide a basis for international conservation organizations to set international trade quotas and adjust the level of trade bans for pangolins, but also provide decision-making reference for scientifically formulating an action plan for the protection of China's wild pangolin resources.

The pangolin, also known as the scaly anteater, qilin, and shanjiazhu, is an ancient-form mammal belonging to the order Pholidota, family Manidae. Its body length is generally 40-55 cm, the tail is flat and thick, and the body is relatively short. The body and tail are covered with imbricate horny scales; the head is small, the snout is pointed, the mouth, ears, and eyes are all small, it has no teeth, and the tongue is slender and can extend from the mouth opening to lick up food. The limbs are short, and the claws are strong and sharp, used for scratching the ground to forage or dig burrows to live in. The pangolin is gentle in temperament and likes to eat ants and other insects. It is timid and easily startled, hiding by day and coming out at night to forage. In the wild it is mainly distributed in areas south of the Yangtze River in China, as well as in Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, and other places, living in forests, shrublands, and grassy areas in hilly and mountainous regions.

Can pangolins be kept? How to breed pangolins

The pangolin is a rare medicinal animal with high medicinal value. Li Shizhen recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica: “The scales can treat malignant sores, madness, promote menstruation, and promote lactation.” Both its meat and scales can be used as medicine. The scales are slightly cold in nature and salty in taste, and have effects such as reducing swelling and discharging pus, activating blood circulation, dredging meridians, and promoting lactation. They can treat sores and pain, breast pain, rheumatoid arthritis, abdominal pain from amenorrhea, failure of lactation, and other conditions; its meat is tender and delicious and is a delicacy at banquets.

The pangolin is a national second-class protected animal, and hunting and killing it is strictly prohibited. Its scales are a valuable traditional Chinese medicinal material in China. In recent years, because wild pangolins have been overhunted and their numbers have sharply declined, and there are few captive breeders, the supply in the traditional Chinese medicine market is tight and prices have soared. According to expert predictions, the market trend for this medicinal material will continue to remain firm for many years to come. Therefore, carrying out artificial breeding of pangolins can bring considerable economic benefits and is also conducive to protecting natural resources.

At present, the breeding stock of pangolins used for rearing in China has no artificial reproduction yet, and all are obtained by catching wild pangolins or purchasing them from the market for breeding use. The state lists pangolins as protected animals and prohibits hunting and trading, so purchasing from the market is relatively difficult. Therefore, to solve the problem of breeding stock for rearing, approval from the local forestry department must first be obtained before going up the mountain to hunt. You can go up the mountain with hunters to look for caves where pangolins live, or use hunting dogs to assist in hunting, tracking along trails and searching for caves to dig and capture. Digging and capturing pangolins can be done all year round, especially in summer and autumn.

Pangolins live in burrows all year round, so artificial rearing should simulate wild habits and build suitable rearing rooms. Choose a humid, wind-sheltered place with mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest for building the site. The foundation of the enclosure wall should be more than 60-80 cm, down to the hard soil layer. The rearing room can be divided into two parts: an inner room and an activity yard. The area should not be too large, and both need cement-laid ground. The activity yard should be enclosed by walls on all sides, with a wall height of 2 m. The activity yard area should preferably be 60 sq m, with a manure pit, and the manure pit filled with dry soil, because pangolins have the habit of digging holes to bury their droppings when defecating. Build rockeries in the yard, construct caves, plant trees on the rockeries, and build a water pool nearby filled with mountain spring water or tap water. The inner room of the rearing room can be divided into several small rooms. In the middle of each small room, a hemispherical ground nest can be made with a diameter of 60 cm and a depth of 40 cm. The nest is lined with cut dry rice straw, covered with a wooden lid, and an entrance and exit tunnel is made. Each room houses only 1 pangolin.

1. Feeding management

The pangolin is a specialized feeder with strong wildness and a solitary nature, and its adaptability to the environment is relatively poor, which increases the difficulty of captive rearing. The following must be noted in feeding management:

1. Feed: The pangolin has special feeding habits and feeds exclusively on ants. Under captive rearing conditions, relying on manually catching termites to feed them is very difficult, because each pangolin needs to eat 80-120 g of termites per day. Generally, even the largest termite nest does not exceed 1000 g, and termite nests are hard to find. Even if there is a termite nest, digging it out is especially labor-intensive, so the following measures must be taken. (1) Artificial termite culture: The culture method is to dig pits in the ground, use rotten pine trunks, branches, and leaves, and introduce termite species for large-scale reproduction. (2) Artificial feed formulation: The artificially formulated feed formula must be reasonable, and the proportions of various ingredients must be appropriate, so that the formulated feed is palatable and readily eaten. Newly captured pangolins used as breeding stock initially refuse artificially fed feed, so they must be fed termites or black ants, and then the feed proportion should be gradually changed until they slowly become accustomed to the artificial mixed feed. For individual pangolins that refuse food for a longer time, artificial force-feeding can also be carried out. Pangolins hide in caves during the day and come out at night to forage. Poultry or other bait can often be placed on the rockeries to attract termites, ants, and other insects. Black lights can also be installed in the yard to attract moths and other insects for the pangolins to eat.

2. Rearing: The rearing room should be disinfected regularly, drinking water and manure pit soil should be changed frequently, the food basin should be washed once a day, moldy feed should not be used, and feeding should be done once a day at a fixed time and in a fixed amount. Each time, feed 150-200 g of artificially formulated feed. After feeding, place the pangolin in the activity yard to move around for 2-3 hours. Because pangolins are accustomed to wild burrowing life, their ability to adapt to ground temperature differences is relatively poor. Once the temperature and humidity of the rearing room are not properly controlled, they are prone to catching cold and developing pneumonia, which can lead to death. The room temperature should be controlled at 18-25°C, and the relative humidity should be controlled at 60%-70%, so that the rearing room can basically achieve warm winters and cool summers, which is beneficial to the growth and development of pangolins.

When pangolins change from wild to domestic rearing, both food and environmental conditions change greatly, which may sometimes cause temporary physiological maladaptation, making them prone to 3 diseases: (1) lice disease, which occurs on the body surface, and should be treated by medicated bathing of the body surface with 10 mL of lice remover mixed with 3-4 kg of water; (2) gastrointestinal disease, if pangolins show diarrhea and reduced food intake, then furazolidone, oxytetracycline, and chloramphenicol should be added to the bait and fed continuously for 4-6 days; (3) coccidiosis. Pangolins with this disease are generally emaciated and anorexic. At this time, sulfur powder can be added to the bait (add 2-3 g to 0.5 kg of bait) and fed continuously for 3-4 days. Pile some disinfected river sand in the yard, that is, mix 90% crystalline trichlorfon 1000-fold solution into the river sand, mix evenly, and let the pangolins take sand baths, which can prevent disease occurrence and make the pangolin scales smooth and plump.

2. Breeding techniques

When pangolins generally weigh more than 2 kg, they enter the breeding stage. They generally come into estrus and mate from May to July each year, and give birth from November to December, with a gestation period of 5-6 months. The duration of estrus in pangolins is relatively long. Males are in estrus continuously during the estrus period and do not show periodicity; females have 2-5 estrous cycles during the estrus period, with an estrous cycle of 12-25 days. Females no longer come into estrus after conception. During the male estrus period, they search everywhere for females. During the estrus and mating period, males and females live together, and separate after mating. Pangolins have 1 litter per year, and under captive rearing conditions, 3 litters can be produced in 2 years. Newborn pangolins weigh 90-130 g, have closed eyes, no scales, and are light white in color. They open their eyes at half a month of age; after 1 month they gain 200-500 g, and the scales gradually keratinize, mostly dark brown; after 2 months they can go out with the mother pangolin to forage; at 6 months the young animal's weight can reach 1500-2000 g, and it can leave the mother and live independently. Young animals born in the first year can reach sexual maturity in the second year and carry out mating and reproduction.

3. Medicinal processing

Pangolins use their scales as medicine, called pangolin scales. Processing can be done throughout the year. After the pangolin is killed, remove all bones and flesh and sun-dry it to obtain the shell (jiapian). Place the shell in boiling water, and the scales fall off by themselves, then sun-dry them; or place the shell in lime water to rot away the skin and flesh, then wash clean with clear water and sun-dry. The fallen scales are tough, elastic, slightly transparent, and very difficult to break, with a fishy odor and salty taste. During preparation, separate the pangolin scales by size, first heat sand in a wok, pour in the scales and stir-fry with the sand until the scales bulge and turn golden yellow, take them out, sift out the sand, and while hot put them into a vinegar basin and stir evenly (use 200 mL of vinegar per 500 g of scales), take them out and sun-dry, and they are ready. After processing, they are called “jiazhu.”

In fact, raising pangolins is not very difficult. The Yunnan Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center has successfully bred them and has already reproduced the second filial generation. The food is an artificially formulated paste-like compound feed, the temperature is maintained between 10-29 degrees, they are fed at night, and they sleep during the day.