Cabana Francis, Plowman Amy, Van Nguyen Thai, Chin Shih-Chien, Wu Sung-Lin, Lo Hsuan-Yi, Watabe Hirofumi, Yamamoto Fujio
Wildlife Nutrition Centre, Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Singapore.
Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, Paignton, United Kingdom.
Zoo Biol. 2017 Jul;36(4):298-305. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21375. Epub 2017 Jun 20.
Pangolins are ant specialists which are under intense threat from the illegal wildlife trade. Nutrition has notoriously been their downfall in captivity and is still an issue in regards to rescue and rehabilitation. We analyzed the nutrient content of diets used by institutions that are successfully keeping Asian pangolins and to assess the variety of the ingredients and nutrients, compared these with the nutritional requirements of potential nutritional model species. We performed intake studies at five institutions and also had data from three other institutions. We also analyzed five different wild food items to use as a proxy of wild diet. We observed two categories of captive diets: those mostly or completely composed of insects and those high in commercial feeds or animal meat. Nutrient values were broad and there was no clear rule. The non-protein energy to protein energy ratio of the diets were much higher than the wild food items, more so for those which receive less insects. The average contribution of carbohydrate, fat and protein energy were also further away from the wild samples the less insects they contained. The previously suggested nutritional model for pangolins is the domestic dog which is supported by our relatively large nutrient ranges of apparently successful diets, however due to their highly carnivorous nature; the upper most nutrient intake data are not consistent with this and favor the feline nutrient recommendations. We are unable to render a conclusion of what model is more appropriate based on our data collected.
穿山甲是食蚁专家，正面临来自非法野生动物贸易的巨大威胁。在圈养环境中，营养问题一直是它们的致命弱点，在救援和康复方面仍然是个问题。我们分析了成功圈养亚洲穿山甲的机构所使用的日粮的营养成分，并评估了成分和营养的多样性，将这些与潜在营养模型物种的营养需求进行了比较。我们在五个机构进行了摄入量研究，还获取了其他三个机构的数据。我们还分析了五种不同的野生食物，以作为野生饮食的代表。我们观察到两类圈养日粮：一类主要或完全由昆虫组成，另一类则以商业饲料或动物肉为主。营养价值范围很广，没有明确规律。日粮的非蛋白质能量与蛋白质能量之比远高于野生食物，对于昆虫摄入量较少的日粮更是如此。日粮中碳水化合物、脂肪和蛋白质能量的平均占比也与野生样本差异更大，所含昆虫越少差异越大。先前提出的穿山甲营养模型是家犬，我们明显成功的日粮相对较大的营养范围支持了这一点，然而，由于它们高度肉食性的天性，最高营养摄入数据与此不一致，更倾向于猫科动物的营养建议。根据我们收集的数据，我们无法得出哪种模型更合适的结论。
