Chimelong re-exhibits its breeding strength and focuses on shark population protection

July 14 is shark protection publicity day, in the eyes of the public, sharks are ferocious and brutal marine overlords, survival is not threatened in any way, but different from public perception, in recent years, due to human over-hunting, the number of sharks in many species is decreasing sharply, and the survival status of wild shark populations in the world is not optimistic. In order to maintain the diversity of shark populations, Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom is committed to the artificial breeding of leopard sharks, taking this as a key breakthrough project, and in 2021, Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom will hatch three leopard sharks in succession.

The leopard shark family continues to grow and hatch again to show its breeding strength

The three-tailed leopard shark hatched by Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in 2021 is the second time chimelong has successfully bred leopard sharks, two of which are females and one is male. The birth of three new members has increased the number of leopard sharks in Chimelong to 13, and the family size is growing. Compared with the two female leopard sharks bred last year, this is the first time that Chimelong hatched a male leopard shark, and its body length and weight have increased compared with last year.

Last year's two-tailed leopard shark was between 22 and 24 cm long and weighed between 60 and 70 grams, and this year's trigonal body is between 26 and 28 cm and weighs between 70 and 80 grams, and the maximum body length will reach about 3 meters when it grows up. Leopard shark pups are covered with thick black and white stripes, and when they reach adulthood, the stripes become brown spots like leopard patterns all over the body, so they are called leopard sharks. Unlike the public perception of sharks, leopard sharks are very docile and never take the initiative to attack people. The increase in the number, body length and weight of the newborn leopard shark represents the further improvement of the breeding technology of the Chimelong leopard shark.

Newborn leopard shark image to be added

Shark breeding methods are fetal, oviparous, oviparous, and leopard shark is oviparous breeding, according to experts from Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, leopard shark breeding has a low shark egg fertilization rate, fertilized egg hatching rate of the double problem.

In view of the problem of low fertilization rate of shark eggs, Chimelong carried out parental nutrition enhancement in the early stage, balanced nutrition, and promoted parental maturation. In addition, the conservation team also regularly tests the parental length of leopard sharks, the length of male interlocutors and other indicators, and increases or decreases the ratio of food and nutrients according to the test results to ensure that the parents achieve the best breeding state. The conservation team also learned from past experience to replace the larger tank body for the parents, ensuring that the parents could move freely in the tank and facilitate the parents to feed and mate. After much effort, the conservation team finally got a few precious leopard shark fertilized eggs.

Female leopard sharks lay purple-black eggs covered with hair fibers, and the next new problem is that the conditions required for the smooth incubation of leopard shark fertilized eggs are harsh, the conservation team keeps the water temperature between 26.3-26.8 °C, and the dissolved oxygen is 7.9-8.4 mg to provide a relatively suitable environment for incubation. In addition, the nursery team deliberately modified the nursery pond to ensure that the light, water temperature and dissolved oxygen amount of the incubation environment reached the standard, and in order to simulate the wild hatching environment, the nursery pond also maintained the flow of water. At the same time, in order to ensure that the fertilized eggs do not affect each other, the conservation team will hang the fertilized eggs at a suitable spacing on the rope and submerge them in water, during the incubation, the conservation team will regularly check the state of the fertilized eggs, observe whether the appearance is clean, whether there is other biological interference, and clean up the water body and foreign bodies in time.

After a four-month incubation period, the three newborn leopard sharks finally broke out of their shells under the close monitoring of the conservation team. Newborn leopard sharks often retain umbilical cord tissue and a small number of yolk sacs, usually about ten days to open their mouths, and the conservation team has also put a lot of effort into feeding the newborn leopard shark cubs. In the early days, a variety of baits such as ming shrimp, squid, and flower shells were made into meat paste for them to feed, and then according to the palatability of leopard sharks, ming shrimp, Antarctic krill, white ponds, etc. were cut into small pieces and fed. Leopard sharks have a special muscle group in their mouths, and when they eat, their muscle movements produce suction and suck food into their mouths. According to this special characteristic, we have made special feeding tools to avoid direct contact between humans and animals for feeding.

Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom has once again bred leopard sharks, marking the maturity of Chimelong leopard shark breeding technology and another milestone in the breeding of endangered marine animals.

Shark protection is imperative, chimelong works with you

Taking advantage of the Shark Protection Awareness Day, Chimelong called on more people to participate in the cause of shark protection.

Few people realize that sharks play an important role in maintaining the ecological balance of the ocean. According to scientific investigations, sharks can bring nutrients from the seabed when moving upstream and downstream, helping plankton grow better; the emergence of sharks will also change the eating habits of some organisms, preventing them from eating up the seagrass of the same sea area, thus effectively combating climate change. The decline in shark populations and populations will cause irreversible damage to the entire marine ecosystem, which in turn will affect human society.

But the global shark population is declining dramatically, with leopard sharks being one of the 1,038 species of rays and sharks that are in danger of "extinction" by the IUCN. Leopard sharks have been killed in large numbers by humans; at the same time, the poisons and explosives used in fishing will destroy the homes on which they depend, according to statistics, the population size of leopard sharks has decreased by more than 50% in three generations, and in 2015, leopard sharks were rated as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, facing the danger of extinction at any time.

Although leopard sharks have the ability to reproduce solitary, scientists do not believe that this will improve the current endangered status of leopard sharks. Because only female small sharks can be obtained through parthenogenesis, the problem of male shortage cannot be solved, and at the same time, in the absence of male individuals to supplement genes, solitary female reproduction will reduce the genetic diversity and resilience of the population.

Protecting sharks is about protecting the oceans and protecting human beings themselves, and shark protection is imperative. As a pioneer in marine ecological protection, Chimelong Group has long been committed to the breeding of endangered marine animals, constantly innovating breeding techniques and feeding methods, and there are rare shark populations such as leopard sharks, whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, cone-tooth sharks and reaming sharks living in Zhuhai Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. In the future, Chimelong Group will continue to deepen the field of animal breeding, while increasing the publicity of ecological protection, so that caring for marine animals and protecting marine ecology will gradually become a social consensus.

Text/Photo: Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng Reporter: Chen Zhijia

Correspondent: Huang Weiming

Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Yang Hongquan