Panda Reproduction
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Giant Pandas have a very slow reproductive rate which sadly contributes towards their decline in numbers. Giant Pandas mate during the springtime. The female panda's gestation time varies between 112 days and 163 days. After this time, she will give birth to one single cub. On rare occasions, she will produce 2 - 3 cubs, but usually only one will survive.
The female panda can only conceive during a 72 hour estrous period which only happens during the spring breeding period.
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Because of this limited time for the female to become pregnant, some mating pairs will often copulate for several hours, whereas other mating pairs will only copulate once. Male pandas are more sexually active for longer and will attempt to mate with several female pandas during this time. The mating pairs will show no interest in each other at any other time of the year.
The female panda gives birth in the Autumn. Panda cubs are very small, weighing between three and a half and six ounces. They have little fur, are pinkish white in colour, blind and very helpless. No other mammal gives birth to such a small baby except marsupials like the kangaroo who keeps her babies in her pouch until they are fully developed. A panda mother will carry her cub around in her arms and care for it's every whim constantly. Panda cubs cry just like human babies when they need feeding or need care from their mother. They will cry for milk about every two hours or so. Between feeding times, the mother panda will continuously hold her cub very gently.
This attentive behaviour will continue until the cub is able to move around by itself when the cub is about three months old. At this age, the cub will continue to follow it's mother around and by six months the cub can begin eating bamboo. They are finally weaned off their mothers at around nine months old. The weaning of the cubs in the spring following their births is an ideal time as the newest most protein-filled bamboo shoots are available. This gives cubs the best possible start in life on a diet that in the best of conditions is of poor nutritional quality. At about a year old, the cubs can weigh 75 pounds, which is about a third of an adult pandas weight.
Female pandas do not reach sexual maturity until they are five to six years old. However, even young, inexperienced female pandas display a maternal instinct and know instantly how to care for the young without needing any practice. This is very important because no breeding season is then wasted through 'clumsy parenting'. Because female pandas start to breed quite late and only rear a single young cub every two years, she will only rear in total around seven offspring in her lifetime. By the age of 22, a female panda is considered 'old' and possibly 'post-reproductive'. The giant pandas low reproductive rate makes it very difficult for a giant panda population to recover from a decline in numbers.
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One of the most recent panda cub births is that of Tai Shan (also known as Butterstick). Tai Shan is a young male Giant panda born to mother Mei Xiang at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo in Washington, D.C) on July 9, 2005.
Both of Tai Shan's parents were born at the China Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan Province.
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Mei Xiang, his mother, was artificially inseminated in March 2005 with sperm from Tian Tian after natural mating between the pair appeared unsuccessful. The National Zoo will rear Tai Shan until he is 2 year old, then he will be sent to China.
