What to do when male golden coin turtles produce few offspring? Farmer tries farming and creates a miracle
Of every 100 newborn golden coin turtles, only 3 are male! For a long time, artificially farmed golden coin turtles have kept rising in reproductive numbers, but as for sex, male turtles are extremely few. No one has been able to change this miraculous phenomenon for many years, and this has also brought difficulties to the ecological restoration of golden coin turtles. But Li Yi, owner of the Li Yi Golden Coin Turtle Farm in Huizhou, told a Yangcheng Evening News reporter that after more than 3 years of exploration, he has successfully raised the output rate of male turtles in artificial farming from the original 3% to more than 20%. On the 19th, several biologists flew to the Li Yi Golden Coin Turtle Farm in Yangcun, Huizhou, to conduct research, hoping to crack the miraculous breeding code of the golden coin turtle.
The golden coin turtle is a national second-class protected animal. Beginning in 1989, farmer Li Yi of Yangqiao Town, Boluo, began artificially farming golden coin turtles. Today, Li Yi's farm has more than 2,000 breeding turtles, and golden coin turtle breeding has reached the fourth generation. At present, the farm has become the world's largest golden coin turtle farm.
Farming golden coin turtles is not very difficult, but there is a serious sex imbalance. According to Li Yi, compared with wild turtle species, artificially farmed golden coin turtles have obvious advantages in the number of eggs laid, survival rate, and other aspects. The only shortcoming is that the male output rate of wild turtles is about 40%, while most artificially farmed golden coin turtles produced are females, with a male output rate of only 3%.
To crack this problem, Li Yi began experiments three years ago. In a lychee grove of about 3 mu, imitating a wild environment, he put in 40 turtles for farming. While feeding them artificially, he trained the turtles to prey on live creatures. As a result, the male output rate of this batch of turtles reached more than 20%. Li Yi said that as long as the environment is wild enough, the male output rate will naturally increase. Therefore, he decided to build a miniature protected area for his golden coin turtles, creating experience for the continuation of this species and its eventual return to the wild environment.
Li Yi's success in golden coin turtle farming has attracted the attention of biologists worldwide. On May 19, Torsten (torsten blanck), a member of the Freshwater Turtle and Tortoise Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and a member of the International Turtle and Tortoise Survival Alliance, and a group of 5 people went to Boluo. Li Yi explained to them in detail the wild-imitating miniature golden coin turtle protected area built there.
Torsten said that so far, there is no precedent in the world for domesticating wild golden coin turtles, and there was previously no wild-imitating golden coin turtle protected area either. He looks forward to Li Yi's pioneering move providing valuable experience for the eventual rewilding and continuation of this species.