Photo taken on June 13, 2017 shows a container of smuggled pangolins at Belawan Port in Medan, Indonesia on June 13, 2017. (Photo/Xinhua)
A total of 130 pangolins seized from smugglers by authorities in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had died by the end of January of "rescue failure," The Beijing News reported Sunday.
The Guangxi forestry department sent 66 live pangolins from 2015 to 2016 to the Guangxi Shengkai Investment Co., which owned a pangolin breading base in Xianggu village, Beihai.
The department also sent another 64 live pangolins from 2014 to 2017 to the Yuehuiteng steel company in Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province, according to The Beijing News.
The 130 pangolins - Sunda pangolins, also known as the Malayan or Javan pangolin, seized by Guangxi authorities from smugglers - had all died by January, The Beijing News reported.
Pangolins are listed as extremely endangered animals. In captivity, the armadillo-like animals have a high mortality rate and require a qualified team, special equipment and techniques to care of them, Wu Shibao, a pangolin expert and professor at the School of Life Sciences at South China Normal University, told the Global Times on Monday.
The Guangxi forestry department should be held responsible for the deaths of the pangolins if the two breeding institutes failed to have the required qualifications to protect pangolins, Wu noted.
Su Fei, the manager of the Pangolin protection group of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, told the Global Times on Monday there are more than 100 pangolin rescue centers affiliated with forestry departments in China, which are government owned.
Because current breeding centers cannot properly protect pangolins, Su said the country should allow pangolins to live in the wild. Southern China such as Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces are suitable places for pangolins, she said.
In China, pangolins were mainly used as medicine, and were thought to invigorate the circulation of blood and promote lactation. A live pangolin can fetch more than 20,000 yuan on the black market, according to The Beijing News.
Guangxi Shengkai Investment Co. is the only commercial institute in the region approved by the Guangxi forestry department to breed pangolins.
However, the company had been receiving pangolins from Guangxi forestry department since January 2015 before they were qualified to do so. Residents in Xianggu also said they never heard of any pangolin breeding base in the village, The Beijing News reported.
Meantime, the business scope of the Foshan Yuehuiteng steel company includes metal materials, hardware and electrical equipment, but no wild animal protection.
Despite this, the company had been entrusted by the Guangxi forestry department to raise pangolins from 2013 to 2018.
Luo Runman, a manager of the Yuehuiteng steel company, was investigated by local police for illegal pangolin trade in December 2018, according to The Beijing News.
