Giant Panda
Scientific name: Ailuiopodidae melanoleuca
Alternative names: Flower Bear, Hua Xiong, Bamboo Bear, Flower-headed Bear, Silver Dog, Large Raccoon, Equ, Du Dongga, Zhiyi, Pi, fierce leopard, fierce beast, tapir, iron-eating beast, panda, giant panda, panda, Pixiu, white bear, black and white cat
English name: Giant Panda
Pinyin: dà xióng māo
French name: panda géant
Classification
Omnivore (Carnivora) Bear family (Ursidae) Giant panda subfamily ( Ailurinae)
The taxonomic status of the giant panda has always been controversial. The ancestor of the giant panda is the panda that evolved from the pseudoursids. Nowadays, it is generally accepted internationally that it is classified as Ursidae and Giant Panda subfamily, and it is also gradually recognized domestically. The traditional domestic classification lists giant pandas as a separate species in the family Pandaidae.
Endangered level
CITES: Appendix I
IUCN: Endangered
National key protection level: Level 1
China’s Red Data Book of Endangered Animals Level: Endangered
Appearance Characteristics
Giant pandas are plump and bear-like, but have a round head and short tail. The head and body fur are distinctly black and white. Its body length is 120~180 cm, tail length is 10~20 cm, white, and weighs 60~110 kg. The head is round and large, and in addition to the five clawed toes on the front paw, there is also a sixth toe. The trunk and tail are white, the ears, eyes, limbs and shoulder blades are all black, and the abdomen is light brown or gray-black.
Distribution range
Giant pandas live in temperate forests on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in southwest China, where bamboo is the main understory plant. This series of high mountains and deep valleys transitioning from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in my country to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau includes mountain systems such as the Qinling Mountains, the Min Mountains, the Qionglai Mountains, the Daxiaoxianling Mountains and the Daxiaoliang Mountains. The Qinling Mountains are distributed in the southern foothills. The main county is Foping, the generally distributed county is Yang County, and only a small number of counties are Taibai, Ningshan, Zhouzhi, Liuba, Ningqiang, etc. Except for Wenxian County in Gansu Province, the rest of the Minshan System is distributed in Sichuan. The main counties in Sichuan are Pingwu, Qingchuan and Beichuan. They are generally distributed in Jiuzhaigou County, Songpan, Maoxian and other counties. A small number of counties are Anxian, Mianzhu, Pengzhou, Shifang and Dujiangyan City. The Qionglai Mountain System is mainly distributed in counties such as Baoxing, Wenchuan and Tianquan, and generally distributed in Dayi and Lushan. Counties with only a small amount of distribution include Qionglai, Chongzhou, Kangding, Luding, etc. In addition to Hongya and Mianning, which are generally distributed counties in the Xiaoxiang Ridge, there are only a few counties such as Yingjing, Shimian, Hanyuan, and Jiulong. In addition to a certain number in Mabian, Meigu and Yuexi, there are only a small number of counties in the Liangshan Mountains such as Ganluo, Ebian and Leibo.
How many giant pandas are there currently in the wild? This is a difficult question to answer! Living in dense bamboo forests on steep slopes in high mountainous areas, counting giant pandas has become a very difficult job. There were two surveys in the 1970s and 1980s, and it was estimated that there were about 1,000 giant pandas in the wild. This number may be low. There are 37 counties in the giant panda distribution area. If divided into three levels: main production, general and small quantities, there are about 100 giant pandas in each county in the main production counties, and there are 7 counties in the country; there are about 100 in each county of general production. There are more than 50 birds in 11 counties; in low-producing counties, there are often less than 50 birds in each county, and there are 19 counties in total. Based on this calculation, the total number of giant pandas in the wild is about a thousand, and the number in captivity is about 100. The net reproductive rate of giant pandas is 1.06740002, and the population growth is slow. According to a 2006 survey by the State Forestry Administration, there are currently 1,596 wild giant pandas in the country and 161 in captivity. The giant panda is the rarest of the bear family and one of the mammals most threatened by its survival. The habitat area surveyed in the 1980s was approximately 13,000 square kilometers. According to the 2005 survey report of the State Forestry Administration, the Qinling population of giant pandas has now been confirmed to be a new subspecies of giant pandas. Qinling giant pandas and Sichuan giant pandas have been geographically separated for 50,000 years. In appearance, Qinling giant pandas have rounder heads. There are currently 273 giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. In the Qinling Mountains, brown giant pandas have been found among black and white giant pandas.
Living environment
Giant pandas inhabit the high mountains and deep valleys of the mountain systems in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which are on the windward side of the southeast monsoon. The climate is cool and humid, and the humidity is often above 80%, so they It is a moisture-loving animal. Their active areas are mostly in valleys, mountainside depressions, valley terraces, etc., generally on gentle slopes below 20°. These places have fertile soil, lush forests, and arrow bamboo grow well, forming an excellent food base with relatively stable temperatures, good shelter conditions, and abundant food and water resources. They live in mountain bamboo forests at an altitude of 2,400 to 3,500 meters. The living environment has high humidity and large temperature differences.
Life habits
Except for the estrus period, they often lead a solitary life, traveling both day and night. The nest area is variable from 3.9 to 6.4 km2, and there is overlap in nest areas between individuals. The male's nest area is slightly larger than that of the female. Females only move within a nuclear domain of 30 to 40 hectares most of the time, and the nuclear domains between females do not overlap.
Their food mainly consists of about 50 species of bamboos in alpine and sub-alpine areas, and they occasionally eat other plants and even animal carcasses. He eats a lot and drinks water from springs or streams every day.
Giant pandas living in the wild have an average lifespan of about 15 years, and their sexual maturity period is 6.5 to 7.5 years old. They usually go into estrus in April. They usually give birth in early September of that year in a cave nest in an ancient tree. Each litter gives birth to 1 cub, and occasionally 2 cubs are born. A newborn giant panda cub weighs only 25 grams. A panda cub that is about one month old has black and white fur and weighs about 1 kilogram, but it still cannot walk and its eyes cannot detect light. Three-month-old cubs begin to learn to walk and have normal vision. After six months of age, the cub weighs about 13 kilograms. It can follow its mother and learn to eat bamboo and some milk to supplement nutrition. At the same time, it begins to learn the skills of survival in the wild. When the cub is one year old, it has grown to about 40 kilograms, and its weight can reach more than 50 kilograms when it is one and a half years old. Only then does the panda cub begin to live alone.
The male-to-female ratio of giant pandas in the wild is about 1:1.
Most dangerous factors
1. Deforestation. The logging area of ??the giant panda habitat reaches at least 10,000 hectares every year. Its habitat is being lost at a rate of approximately 2.5 km2 per year (Kleiman et al., 1991). In the past 30 years, the population of the giant panda distribution areas in Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces has doubled, reaching more than 430,000 people. From 1950 to 1985, there were 27 large-scale forestry enterprises (excluding county-owned logging sites). The verified forest area logged is more than 420,000 hectares, and the average annual logging area is more than 20,000 hectares. As a result, the habitat has dropped sharply from 31,450 square kilometers in the early 1970s to 13,921.52 square kilometers 15 years later. Covering 17,528.48 square kilometers, accounting for 56% of the original habitat, and causing the disappearance of pandas in 6 logging areas, with only a handful of pandas remaining in 10 logging areas, and a sharp decline in population;
2. Capture excessive. For example, in Caopo, Wenchuan County before liberation, Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States purchased and captured more than 20 living animals (excluding hunters). As a result, the giant panda population there, more than 50 years ago, is still very small. Few and have not yet been restored. Another example is Baoxing County. From 1963 to the present, more than 113 giant pandas have been captured in just one county. Since the mid-1950s, more than 240 pandas have been captured from the wild and put on display at home and abroad, of which more than 110 are concentrated in Baoxing and more than 60 in Pingwu. As a result, the population structure of these two counties has been destroyed, and their numbers have increased significantly. decline. According to giant panda life table analysis, one generation takes about 12 years, and the population growth is very slow. If captured in large numbers, it will take decades to recover even if they are well protected;
3. In recent years, poaching and smuggling of giant panda skin specimens have occurred from time to time;
4. The giant panda population is distributed in more than 25 island-shaped isolated habitats. The size of these isolated habitat areas is 205 square kilometers (range 30 to 2384 km), with the majority (67%) being less than 350 km2. The isolation and fragmentation of this population is an important factor that threatens its population in the long term. The phenomenon of inbreeding depression in small groups will reduce fecundity, larval survival rate and resistance to diseases. Eventually the "island" members will disappear. According to the genetic analysis of the panda population in the Qinling Mountains by Pan Wenshi and others, there are more than 200 giant pandas there, which can form a breeding group of about 90 animals. The generational heterozygosity reduction rate is 0.54%. After 12 generations, that is, after 140 years, every year Each member will have 1/8 of the same genes, equivalent to cousins;
5. Due to the expansion of human activities, giant pandas are forced to retreat to the top of the mountain, and bamboo species are very simple. , once bamboo blooms, there will be no room for maneuver. Only in 1975, arrow bamboo bloomed in the Minshan area, and more than 138 died. In the 1980s, arrow bamboo bloomed in a large area in Qionglai Mountain. After the disaster, 108 giant panda carcasses were found, and 33 died due to ineffective rescue. ***Total 141;
6. Mineral development and pollution without government permission in the giant panda habitat, as well as tree felling and hunting by miners are also threats.
7. Giant pandas only give birth to a few offspring in their lifetime. They usually reproduce only once every two years. They only give birth to two red pandas in one litter and the female panda does not have the energy to feed them all.
Species History
The giant panda is a lively animal with a unique black and white coat. Its Latin name: Ailuropodamelanoleuca refers to its black and white appearance. The species of the giant panda is a question that has been debated for a century: Does it belong to the bear family, or is it close to the raccoon family like the red panda, or is it a species of its own? Recent DNA analysis shows that giant pandas belong to the Ursidae family and represent an early branch of the Ursidae family. Adult pandas are about 120 to 190 centimeters long and weigh 85 to 125 kilograms. Unique features include large, flat molars and one of its wrist bones that has developed into a "pseudo-thumb" in order to adapt to a life of eating bamboo. Unlike the other six species of bears, giant pandas and sun bears do not hibernate.
Fossils show that the ancestors of giant pandas appeared in the early Pluvial Period 2 to 3 million years ago. The giant panda's habitat once covered most of eastern and southern China, reaching as far north as Beijing and as far south as southern Myanmar and northern Vietnam (Schaler, 1993). Fossils are usually found in temperate or subtropical forests at an altitude of 500 to 700 meters.
Dramatic changes in giant panda habitats have only occurred in recent times. In recent centuries, China's population has exploded and occupied land, and many habitats have been lost. In the past, giant pandas used to live in low mountain valleys, but now they have become residential areas. Giant pandas can only live between 1,200 and 3,400 meters above sea level where bamboo can grow.
Food characteristics
The diet of giant pandas is very special, including almost all kinds of bamboo that can be found in high mountain areas. Giant pandas also occasionally eat meat (usually animal carcasses). The giant panda's unique food characteristics make it known as the "bamboo bear" by the locals. Bamboo lacks nutrients and can only provide the basic nutrients needed for survival. Giant pandas have gradually evolved to adapt to this diet. In the wild, apart from sleeping or moving short distances, giant pandas spend up to 14 hours a day feeding. A giant panda eats 12 to 38 kilograms of food every day, which is close to 40% of its body weight. Giant pandas like to eat the most nutritious parts of bamboo with the least fiber, namely the young stems, buds, and bamboo shoots. Giant panda habitats usually have at least two species of bamboo. When one type of bamboo blooms and dies (bamboo blooms and dies periodically every 30 to 120 years), giant pandas can turn to other bamboos. However, continued habitat fragmentation increases the likelihood that there will be only one type of bamboo in the habitat, and when that bamboo dies, giant pandas in the area face the threat of starvation.
Captivity and social behavior
"Reproductive difficulties" was used as a news headline to describe the reproductive status of giant pandas. However, studies in the wild show that while giant pandas live longer in captivity, they have greater reproductive success in the wild. In the wild, both male and female adult pandas participate in reproduction. A female can mate with several vying males, while a male will seek out different females in estrus. The mating season is from March to May in spring and usually lasts no more than 2 to 4 days. The gestation period is approximately 5 months. Twins occasionally occur in the wild, but female pandas generally only feed one cub. In captive populations, twinning is common. Before giving birth, females seek out the roots of empty trees and caves to give birth. It spends three months in and near such shelters, tending its young carefully with its large hands. Giant panda cubs are very small when they are born, usually only 100 to 200 grams, which is only about 1/900 of the weight of the mother bear. A few days to a month after the birth of a giant panda cub, the mother panda will leave the cub alone in a cave or tree hole to look for food. The female will sometimes be gone for 2 days or more. This does not mean that it abandons its young, but is a natural part of the process of raising young. The cubs start eating bamboo around 12 months of age, but until then they are completely dependent on their mother. The mortality rate of cubs in the wild is lower than that in captivity, about 40%.
Long-term research in the Qinling area shows that the reproduction rate of giant pandas is about 0.654 cubs/female/year, which is similar to some natural populations of North American brown bears
Giant pandas are solitary animals. Each adult has a clear nest territory. The male individual's nest territory is usually very large, close to 30 square kilometers, and generally overlaps with the nest territories of multiple female individuals. When male giant pandas meet in the same nest area, such as around female pandas in estrus, there is a clear hierarchy between them, and fighting for mates can lead to fights. The dominant male has priority to mate with the female, but other males also have the opportunity. Female individuals become sexually mature at 3-4 years old, and male individuals are around 5 years old. Young males are lower in the hierarchy and do not have the opportunity to mate until they are 7-8 years old. Females are from 4 to 20 years old and usually give birth every 2-3 years. Although the only family structure of giant pandas is between the mother and her cubs, which are less than one and a half years old, giant pandas often communicate with each other through sounds and smells, even when they are not in estrus. Giant panda cubs are weaned around one year old and stay with their mother until they are around one and a half years old, until the mother becomes pregnant again. If the mother is not pregnant, the cub will live with the mother until it is two and a half years old, at which time the mother will chase it away. After independence, most cubs live close to their mother, while others, especially females, live far away from their birthplace. The behavior of giant pandas still needs further study.
Giant pandas in captivity can live for 30 years or more, but the lifespan of wild giant pandas is usually only about 20 years.
Dangerous Period
The period from 1974 to 1976 was a period of hunger in the life history of giant pandas. Chengdu Zoo sent Zhang Anju to join the investigation team of the State Forestry Department to investigate the disaster in Pingwu, Tangjiahe in Qingchuan, and Xiaozhaizigou in Beichuan. The survey team members stepped through knee-deep snow and saw patches of withered, yellow and black bamboo forest, like burned skin. The most thrilling thing is that panda carcasses are constantly being discovered - some are rotten; some are torn to pieces by jackals; some are sleeping in the snowy valley, hugged tightly by mother and child. There is also a panda baby less than half a year old, only one step away from its mother, but it can no longer suck its mother's milk. The mother's life is frozen in the moment of looking back, and the baby's final cry of hunger and coldness The sound was also swallowed up by the sound of wind and snow.
The forest mourns in silence, and the mountain wind weeps. The stubborn men were in tears.
A bitter number swallowed with tears - 138 pandas lying dead in the forest!
Zhang Anju, a veterinary expert on the investigation team, dissected 13 panda carcasses in succession. The stomach cavities of each were empty and the intestines were transparent and shiny, showing how hungry they were.
At the same time, sick and hungry giant pandas from various places were sent to Chengdu Zoo for rescue, with the number at most reaching more than 40. At that time, the Chengdu Zoo had just moved from Baihuatan to the Buddhist temple Zhaojue Temple. Everything was not straightened out. The panda cages were crowded into the Bear Mountain, the Orangutan Pavilion, and even the main hall, so that the Bodhisattvas could not find a place to stay.
Not a single panda is skinny and bones, and some are so weak that they no longer have the strength to chew food. There is no panda without roundworms in its body, and one panda has more than 3,000 roundworms in its body!
Love and a sense of mission have defeated the death that stalked giant pandas several times, and 90% of the pandas sent to Chengdu Zoo were rescued.
In the summer of 1983, disaster struck again. Alpine arrow bamboos in the Minshan and Qionglai Mountains bloomed and withered in large areas, and more than 500 pandas suffered another disaster.
What is different from a few years ago is that China has ended the "Cultural Revolution" and the country has opened up. News of the panda disaster quickly spread around the world.
There is a soulful song about the blossoming arrow bamboo and the starving panda Mimi, which aroused the sympathy of countless people. The grand fundraising event quickly spread all over the world.
The Chengdu Zoo has once again become a medical and rescue center for giant pandas. He Guangxin, the owner of the zoo, recalled that we worked day and night to rescue sick and hungry giant pandas. A giant panda sent from Tianquan County and later named "Quanquan" fell from a high cliff while looking for food. His scalp was split and he needed eleven stitches. All the food was given to him by the spoonful. Feed liquids to sustain life. Later, it was finally able to move, stand, and walk. It became the panda that liked to be close to people the most. It kept the kindness of human beings in mind. However, since the ecological environment in the wild has not been restored, the recovered giant pandas cannot be released into the mountains and forests. As a result, the strategic thinking of ex-situ conservation began to take shape.
The so-called ex-situ protection has a world-famous success story - the Chinese elk "exiled" to the United Kingdom in the 19th century. Due to the good ex-situ protection, they survived the German bombings and the turmoil of World War II. reproduce. In the 1980s, wild elk, which had long been extinct in China, returned to their homeland from Britain.
During the Spring Festival of 1986, the Chengdu Cultural Palace was hosting a lantern show. Zhang Anju, who has served as the director of the Chengdu Municipal Garden Bureau, and Director Zheng Shuling of the Ministry of Construction, Director Hu Tieqing of the Provincial Forestry Department and others met in the Bajiao Pavilion to discuss the establishment of a "base". There are two lights on in everyone's mind: first, its positioning is not only a "breeding farm", but also a scientific research institution to explore the mysteries of giant pandas and a large classroom to popularize scientific knowledge to the masses; second, it is built in Chengdu , not only belongs to the "Chengdu Garden Bureau", but also belongs to China. Finally, everyone settled on a name that would become famous all over the world: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Natural enemies of giant pandas
Although giant pandas live in isolation, there are still some animals that are enemies of them in their habitat, such as golden cats, leopards, Jackals, wolves, yellow-throated martens, etc., but they mainly attack giant panda cubs and the sick and elderly, because young and strong giant pandas still retain the ferocity of their carnivorous ancestors and are not weak when encountering strong ones, making them intimidating to enemies. . The seemingly docile and naive giant pandas in the zoo also sometimes hurt people when provoked.
Jackal: Mainly attacks juvenile giant pandas or sick and elderly individuals. The trick for hunting is to climb up its back, first dig out its eyes, and then grab its anus to pull out its intestines, so it is called "dog hunting";
Leopard: attacks young giant pandas and old, sick and weak individuals;
Golden cat: often attacks giant panda cubs.
Judging from the fertility and growth of giant pandas, giant pandas are a very fragile population that is gradually declining. The malignant changes in external conditions will be very sensitive to the decline of the population and eventually lead to extinction.
Artificial breeding of giant pandas
As early as the early 1980s, an expert from the Beijing Zoo once asserted that it is difficult to breed giant pandas under artificial conditions! Disaster! Disaster! The three difficult words refer to: difficulty in insemination, difficulty in pregnancy, and difficulty in raising children.
1990 was the year of breakthrough for the base to solve the "difficulty in child care".
After being recovered, dozens of giant pandas brought to Chengdu for rescue were sent to their native places for release. Some were transferred to zoos in Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou and other places. Chengdu Zoo left 6 Only, became the "ancestor" of the "base" pandas.
Old director Li Guanghan said that before 1990, the survival rate of artificial breeding was only 33%. The main reason is that after a panda mother gives birth to twins, she usually only keeps one and discards the other. There are also some panda mothers who lack experience and cannot take care of their babies. Allowing panda mothers to raise twins well, and allowing experienced mothers to serve as "nurses" for babies who are short of milk, is the key to improving the survival rate and overcoming the "difficulty in raising young children".
At that time, the more popular and authoritative saying was that panda cubs should be kept absolutely quiet, and people must not disturb them. Black bear and brown bear mothers in the zoo are particularly protective of their cubs after giving birth. Keepers who are familiar with them also stay far away when delivering food. Even if the feces is piled up and the stench is overwhelming, they can't get close to it. If it is frightened or even smells a little strange smell, it will panic and bite the cub to death immediately. Similar tragedies have happened to red panda mothers after giving birth.
Will giant pandas, like black bears and red pandas, bite their cubs to death at the slightest sign of movement? This is a blind spot in research on giant panda behavior.
On September 14, 1963, the first captive giant panda was born in Beijing Zoo.
At that time, He Guangxin worked the night shift for two months as a staff member of the Beijing Zoo. He recalled that the environment was absolutely quiet at that time, and no one was allowed to approach the mother and baby pandas except for individual feeders. It's really a hundred times more careful than serving "Long Live Lord". However, the giant panda is different from the black bear and red panda after all. It should have its own "behaviour". Without understanding the behavioral patterns of panda mothers, it is impossible to improve the survival rate of cubs. Boldly approaching the panda mother and picking up the discarded cubs to feed them artificially raises two major problems: First, how high should the temperature of the nursery box be maintained? Second, what kind of milk should I feed it? They followed the experience of artificially raising tiger and lion cubs, and made simple things. They nailed a wooden box, hung a light bulb in the wooden box, and maintained a temperature of about 30 degrees Celsius. As a result, the cub was extremely cold and froze to death in two or three days. .
In 1988, Meimei gave birth to twins. Keepers Zuo Hong, Zhou Yongzhen, Xu Guirong and others wrapped the cub in a small towel, held it close to the chest, and took turns using their bodies to warm the baby. The effect was good. Later, veterinarian Zhong Shunlong managed to measure the temperature of the panda mother's arms - 36 to 37 degrees Celsius. Later, with automatic incubators, this became the "classic temperature."
As for what kind of milk to feed the panda cubs, it is even more painstaking! I tried both cow's milk and goat's milk, and finally tried human milk. The base once sent people to the hospital delivery room to ask for breast milk. Female worker Chen Xiuqing had just given birth and had enough milk. She set up a bed next to the panda delivery room and volunteered to express her own milk to feed the panda babies.
This move has moved Chinese and foreign experts: This is human beings opening their hearts to giant panda cubs and showing great maternal love!
However, human milk cannot prolong the life of panda cubs. After analysis, newborn cubs must eat their mother's colostrum. The colostrum, like green vegetable juice, contains rich antibodies that cannot be synthesized artificially. Only panda babies that eat colostrum have hope of survival.
This means that we must try to steal newborn cub B, let the panda mother feed colostrum to cub A in her arms, and then try to steal A for B, so that the twins can take turns eating Colostrum. Too risky! In 1989, breeder and veterinarian Zhong Shunlong once tried to send cubs smeared with Meimei's urine into Meimei's arms. Meimei suddenly became angry and trampled one cub to death and bit the other cub to death. Does this violate the iron law set by "authority" again?
In 1990, Qingqing gave birth to twins. While happy, it put the directors He Guangxin and Li Guanghan in trouble, and the technical leaders Song Yunfang and Ye Zhiyong were worried - what should we do? Last year, we paid a heavy price with the death of two cubs. Do you still dare to try this year? After discussion and research, there is only one way. If you don’t take risks, you will never be able to move forward. Director Zhang Anju, who is on a business trip, expressed his support and gave it another try.
The breeder handed Qingqing a basin of sweet milk, covering his sight, and while he was looking at the milk basin, he stole a newborn baby out. Qingqing didn't notice at all.
The newborn baby was placed in a warm incubator. After Qingqing has fed the newborn baby in her arms, she will take advantage of the food delivery time to use the "transfer package trick". Maybe the breeder was too nervous, or maybe Qingqing suddenly noticed something. The breeder didn't dare to get too close to Qingqing, so he placed the newborn cub that had been smeared with Qingqing's urine on the ground. The newborn baby was like a little hairless mouse, chirping and squirming on the ground, attracting Qingqing's attention. It didn't understand why the baby it was holding in its arms just now was crawling on the ground.
At this time, everyone observing outside had their hearts in their throats. Qingqing stood up and walked over, sniffed the doll on the ground, stretched out her pink tongue and licked it, then gently picked it up. Success! Both newborns received colostrum. They were swapped repeatedly, taking turns eating breast milk and synthetic milk, and grew very strong. For the first time, only two milliliters (only two drops!) of precious colostrum sealed the life of a panda. Pandas do not guard their cubs like black bears, brown bears, and red pandas do. This new discovery in behavioral science has promoted a major breakthrough in the history of artificial captive breeding of giant pandas!
In 1992, the results of the cultivation of giant panda twins passed the major achievement appraisal organized by the Sichuan Provincial Science and Technology Commission. First Prize for Scientific and Technological Achievements.
The twin breeding technology pioneered by the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was soon announced to the world and has been widely used. The base also sends personnel to zoos in Shanghai, Fuzhou, Chongqing and other places to help them solve the problem of "difficulty in raising young children".
Nowadays, raising panda twins is no longer a problem. "Hero Mom" ??Qingqing can not only raise the twins she gave birth to, but can also help other sisters nurse their cubs and serve as a wet nurse for three or four cubs. The most capable person is Yaya. In addition to breastfeeding her own twins, she also helps Shulan, Qiyuan and Jiaozi, who are not very good at being mothers, feed their babies, achieving "one for five".
Let’s help the giant pandas
Let’s help the giant pandas together. The lush bamboo sea and forest on Futou Mountain form a "microclimate" that is different from that in urban Chengdu.
At the Panda Base, a "microclimate" suitable for the growth of talents has been formed. Entering the 21st century, batches of highly educated top-notch talents continue to enrich the scientific and technological team of the Panda Base.
Zhang Anju said that our group of college students who graduated in the 1960s are in their sixties and their knowledge is aging. They should give way to the younger generation and push their careers to new heights.
What makes me most happy is that a group of young people represented by Zhang Zhihe have become the backbone of the base. They have a solid foundation, are well-informed, have the courage to practice, and are enterprising. They are much better than us!
Biology teacher Wu Xianzhi, who is good at making specimens and popularizing science, was "recruited" to be the director of the museum. Butterfly expert Zhao Li was transferred to the base together with people and butterflies to set up a butterfly exhibition hall. .
At the beginning of the preparation of the base, the leaders made it clear: a laboratory and a museum must not be missing. Without high-level laboratories, the base is just a breeding ground for feeding pandas, unable to solve any real problems; without a museum, the base is just a place to watch the excitement, and many viewers will never know why. Therefore, tackling key problems and popularizing science have become a pair of wings for the base to take off.
When you walk into the laboratory, into the delivery room, into the museum, you can see the young generation playing leading roles everywhere. Hou Rong, Shen Fujun, Huang Xiangming, Lan Jingchao, Wang Chengdong, Wang Jishan, etc. are the heads of various technical departments. Their names continue to appear on the base's honor roll and in high-level academic journals.
If you stay up late continuously, you will be energetic and have solid skills in dealing with difficult problems. The successful breeding of a super-tiny giant panda cub weighing 51 grams; the successful birth of "Lun Lun" at Zoo Atlanta by crossing the ocean - Youth continues to create miracles. Multiple international cooperation projects with the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Spain are both glorious tasks and tremendous pressure—youth, carrying the heavy responsibility on your shoulders.
Recently, the project of the State Key Laboratory is being launched. The country has set the focus of giant panda scientific research on Futou Mountain because it has taken a fancy to the "sharp ax" of the panda base. Only the strength of youth can wield the "sharp ax" and overcome obstacles.
Chengdu Panda Base not only produces pandas and talents, but also produces experience and theories. In the past twenty years, the base has achieved 59 scientific research results, published more than 300 papers, and published 19 academic monographs.
The two monographs that deserve special attention and special attention have set milestones for giant panda biological science. One is "Giant Panda: Biology, Veterinary Science and Management" published by Cambridge University Press and edited by Zhang Anju and British zoologist David David. This book was signed in 1997 and lasted 10 years. It brought together Chinese and foreign experts. There are 90 papers written by experts, 16 of which are from authors of the Chengdu Giant Panda Base. One is "The Theory and Practice of Ex-Situ Conservation of Giant Pandas" published by Science Press and edited by Zhang Zhihe and Wei Fuwen. The famous biologist Academician Zhao Ermi spoke highly of this book: “It systematically reflects the research results on ex-situ conservation of giant pandas, introduces new theories and practical techniques, and has both theoretical and practical guiding significance. ".
Since nearly 80% of wild giant pandas live in Sichuan Province, the success of the Chengdu Panda Base is of self-evident significance for the protection of giant pandas. For the ex-situ protection of other endangered species, Successful examples are provided. When we take stock of the results achieved over the past two decades, we are even more looking forward to the future of the base.
In the "Chinese Dictionary", the word "base" is explained in this way: base is an area that serves as the basis for a certain undertaking.
In the past two decades, the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base has laid the foundation for the ex-situ conservation of giant pandas. The foundation is just the foundation of a high-rise building, the runway of an airplane, the beginning of a long poem, and the overture of a symphony. And a more glorious and magnificent picture is slowly unfolding - the base will be expanded to 3,000 acres, and a small forest town "Panda Town" will be built on the vast land in the northern suburbs... When the artificially cultivated population expands to a certain number , will launch a rewilding and reintroduction plan to inject strong vitality into the recovery of the giant panda population, and ultimately allow the giant panda family to prosper...
It seems that we are saving giant pandas, but in fact we are also saving ourselves. . When the entire city of Chengdu is surrounded by forests and seas of bamboo, filled with the fragrance of flowers and birds, nourished by gurgling water, and caressed by the bright sunshine, we can proudly say: How wonderful, this is what humans and pandas have in common. home.