From a fragile little life weighing less than 100 grams of pink all over, to a black and white elf weighing 100 kilograms and loved by people all over the world. From 104 in 1990 to 728 today. Behind the healthy growth of every giant panda, the sustainable development of the giant panda population, the gradual decrease in the average kinship value of captive giant pandas, and the continuous increase in genetic diversity are the "ideals of panda people" that have been "transformed into reality" from generation to generation.

On January 25, according to data released by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the total wild population of giant pandas in my country has increased from about 1,100 in the 1980s to nearly 1,900, and the captive population has gradually expanded. By 2023 46 pandas were bred and survived throughout the year, bringing the global number of captive giant pandas to 728.

Giant panda "Huahua"

From 104 to 728

Solving the “Three Major Problems” of Giant Panda Breeding

In the 1960s, China established the first breeding centers in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu where giant pandas are distributed. The first batch of giant panda nature reserves has begun the journey of protecting giant panda habitats in my country. In order to find out the "family background" of giant pandas in the wild, starting in the 1970s, my country has launched a national field survey of giant pandas approximately every 10 years to learn about giant panda population size, habitat area, living conditions and other information.

Why are giant panda cubs so small? Why are there so many premature babies? How can giant pandas give birth to cubs successfully and survive successfully? During the long-term research on giant panda breeding, the staff found that after breeding, giant pandas have delayed embryo implantation. They will choose the right time to start embryonic development and give birth to babies in a very short time, with an average of only about 17 years. sky. This study also visually confirmed for the first time from imaging the reason why giant panda newborn cubs are surprisingly weak. It is an important achievement in research on giant panda breeding.

“Our country has strengthened the research and management of giant panda genetics and implemented scientifically optimized pair breeding, which will organically combine the expansion of captive populations with the improvement of population structure and improvement of genetic quality, effectively maintaining the continuous expansion and genetic quality of captive populations. The structure is increasingly optimized," said Zhang Yue, a second-level inspector of the Wildlife Protection Department of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. At the beginning of this century, Chinese researchers solved three major problems: giant pandas' difficulty in coming into estrus, difficulty in mating and conception, and difficulty in raising young to survive. , the captive population of giant pandas has gradually expanded.

In addition, the average kinship value of captive giant panda populations has gradually decreased, while genetic diversity has continued to increase. Scientific evaluation shows that the current captive population of giant pandas can maintain 90% of its genetic diversity for up to 200 years, becoming a healthy, dynamic and sustainable population.

Giant panda "Rourou"

After becoming a "month-old man", he became a "month-old sister-in-law"

Cheng Jianbin is a breeder at the Wolong Shenshuping base of the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center. In the past 13 years, he has held various positions in breeding and management, and has raised giant pandas of different ages. In recent years, he has almost taken root in the Shenshuping Base Breeding Park and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the breeding of giant pandas.

Every year around the Spring Festival, the giant pandas involved in breeding work move into the breeding garden at Shenshuping Base in Wolong one after another, waiting for a spring love. Cheng Jianbin and his colleagues mainly serve as the "moon elders" of giant pandas, holding the "red thread" for giant pandas of appropriate age and finding "wishful husbands" for female giant pandas in heat. "It is necessary to observe and monitor their behavioral changes and hormonal changes, and adjust the feeding and management plan in a timely manner based on these changes, and then arrange for the two giant pandas to meet at the best time, and on the premise of respecting the natural estrus rules of the giant pandas, let them They mate naturally." Cheng Jianbin has witnessed pairs of giant pandas getting married and helped them give birth smoothly.

During the period of delivery and postpartum care, the breeder must observe the condition of the female animal at any time and make timely feeding adjustments to ensure the smooth delivery and postpartum recovery of the female animal, which is equivalent to what we often call "monthly feeding". Sister-in-law". Giant pandas cannot speak and cannot communicate and express in language. This requires breeders to have a scientific understanding of giant pandas, through their behavior, voice, activity and other aspects of data, and to evaluate the giant pandas based on their breeding experience. The needs of pandas at different stages. "I feel very gratified and proud to see the population of captive giant pandas gradually growing. It shows that our efforts have paid off. I hope these black and white creatures can have a bright future."

Giant Pandas" "Lelela"

Panda Doctor Wang Donghui

Breaking through the bottleneck of artificial breeding of giant pandas

Every year from March to May, it is the "estrus" period of giant pandas. This is a critical period to increase the reproduction rate of giant pandas and break the bottleneck that hinders the high-quality development of captive giant panda populations. This time of year is also the busiest time for researchers at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

"Giant pandas are animals with a single seasonal estrus and have only one chance to reproduce a year. At the same time, they are very selective in mates." On the one hand, researchers must help giant pandas conceive babies smoothly; Carry out targeted scientific research on problems encountered during giant panda breeding. Wang Donghui is a "Doctor Panda" at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. His main research direction is the reproductive and breeding biology of giant pandas and other endangered wild animals.

After nearly 2 years of hard work, Wang Donghui and his team of scientific researchers Under the leadership of Hou Rong, deputy director of the Panda Base, a new semen freezing technology was developed and a diluent more suitable for the cryopreservation of giant panda semen was discovered. "In order to maintain the genetic diversity of the captive giant panda population, we need to rely on artificial insemination technology to assist reproduction. The quality of frozen semen is a key factor in the success of artificial insemination pregnancy." The biggest difficulty they encountered during the research on improving giant panda semen freezing technology It is how to use precious and rare sample resources to achieve the expected research goals. After reading a large amount of literature and carefully formulating experimental plans, they finally found a solution with simpler procedures and higher sperm motility. The formal use of this technology has improved the quality of giant panda frozen sperm by about 10%.

With the rapid and high-quality growth of the number of artificially bred giant pandas, the threat level of giant pandas has been reduced from "endangered" to "vulnerable", and they have been released into the wild and successfully integrated into the wild population. As a megacity with wild and captive giant panda resources, Chengdu has continued to vigorously promote research on the protection of endangered wild animals such as giant pandas in recent years, and has made great efforts in the in-situ and ex-situ protection of rare and endangered animals such as giant pandas, as well as the preservation of genetic resources. made a positive contribution. Today, these scientific research results are not only applied to the protection of giant pandas, but also to the protection of South China tigers, red pandas, red-crowned cranes, green-tailed rainbow pheasants, red gorals and other rare and endangered wild animals.