On July 16th, 2010, Chengdu Panda Base had two happy events. The first thing was that 15 year old female panda Jiao Zi gave birth to the first panda cub in Chengdu this year. She used to be a mother who didn t take care of her baby, but now she has become a good mother. The second thing was that panda Qi Yuan reached the peak of her heat cycle, so researchers of the panda base artificially inseminated her. On that day, base experts were very busy and happy dealing with those two events.
Jiao Zi was born in 1995. Her mother s name is Bing Bing, and her father is Lin Lan. She has given birth to 5 litters with 7 cubs of which 4 have survived. On March 13th, after the failure of free love, researchers of the panda base conducted an arranged marriage for her in which they performed artificial insemination. Jiao Zi s appetite lessened on June 20th, and she only ate a little bit of Wo Tou (special bread for panda) and bamboo. On July 15 at 18:57, Jiao Zi s water broke. At 19:57, she delivered a male cub weighing 108 grams. This is her sixth successful birth since her first birth in 2001.
Acording to panda base records, Jiao Zi has given birth several times, but she was not a good mother because she would not take care of her cub after the cub was born. She did not know how to take care of her baby and often let her cub fall on the floor and cry. She was too scared to move and keept her body against the cage even after she gave birth. The keepers and other mothers had to help her for several years. It was a major headache for keepers at the panda base, so keepers tried many ways to train Jiao Zi how to take care of her cub by arousing her maternal instincts. They played a recording of her baby s voice to stimulate her into holding her cub and made cub puppet to train her how to hold the baby and nurse. In the end, keepers successfully changed Jiao Zi into a good mother, so it was all worthwhile.
At the same time, panda Qi Yuan reached the peak of heat yesterday, and researchers of the panda base artificially inseminated her twice. According to the experts of the panda base, most pandas in captivity are in heat in the spring and give birth in autumn. But in recent years, a small number of pandas are fertile and find their matches in hot weather. Our experts have been busier than usual.
