尖吻蝮幼蛇快速增长法——热带异地人工饲养

Allopatric Captive Rearing in the Tropics Increases the Growth Rates of Deinagkistrodon acutus Snakelets

中国蛇类濒危的主要原因是食用和医用造成的资源过度利用,乱采滥伐导致的生境破碎化,以及污水和农药污染（Lietal.,2005）。尖吻蝮（Deinagkistrodon acutus）具有较高的食用和药用价值,是名贵中药材蕲蛇干的制作原料,

The sharp-snouted pit viper （Deinagkistrodon acutus） is at a high risk of extinction because of high demand for medicinal and food purposes. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate the utility of captive rearing protocols to supplement natural production. We evaluated the effect of conditions during captive rearing on the juvenile growth. We raised two captive populations of snakelets, one at the local in Yongzhou, Hunan Province, a tropical city, and the other, allopatric population in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,a tropical city. We compared growth （change in body weight） between the two populations by using a paired sample t-test. The growth rate was significantly higher in the allopatric population than in the local population. After one year of artificially feeding, the maximum body weight was 350 g in Nanning. Contrary to earlier reports, D. acutus snakelets readily consumed the juveniles of many frog species, and were not limited to feeding on Fejervarya limnocharis. In addition, survival rates differed between the two populations （88% in Yongzhou and 78% in Nanning）. We did not observe any incidences of aggression, despite the relatively high rearing density.The snakelets’ rapid growth rate was likely due to the ready availability of high-energy food sources. Our results suggest that captive rearing allopatrically in tropical areas can be used to increase growth rates in D. acutus snakelets. Additional research is needed to evaluate the feasibility of this approach.