The Public Debut of the Panda Cubs
Thursday, 03 February 2011 08:21
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The last thing on the agenda as part of this visit to China was to attend 
a celebration at the Bifengxia panda base.
Guests from the five countries which have pandas from the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) – USA, Austria, Thailand, Japan, Australia – plus Singapore who will be receiving pandas next year, were invited to attend the event. The event was to celebrate two things:
- The opening of the Overseas-born Panda Paradise and the end of quarantine for the two recent arrivals from San Diego (Su Lin and Zhen Zhen)
- The debut of the 16 pandas born at the base in 2010.
After an opening ceremony, that involved the official welcome and panda acrobatics – pandas (or young boys in panda suits) riding unicycles, bouncing on balls, skipping rope and acrobatics – the main attraction arrived. Sixteen new panda cubs born at Bifengxia – all aged less than 6 months made their way on stage with their keepers. This is the first time the panda cubs have been on display to the public and some were already very comfortable with being the centre of attention; so comfortable they slept through their entire debut.
CCRCGP was established in 1980, and started working with pandas in 1983. Since then, there have been 175 cubs born in 115 litters, or which 15
4 cubs have survived, bringing CCRCGP's captive population up to 165 pandas. This makes CCRCGP the largest giant panda conservation group in the world – follow by the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding which has had 12 cubs born this year.
This year has been the most successful panda breeding year CCRCGP have ever had with 16 young born at the Bifengxia base, and two other cubs born in Beijing and one in Vienna. In the three birthing periods since the earthquake, breeding success has been steadily increasing with improvements in understanding species biology and husbandry techniques. There have been three major challenges to overcome to successfully breed pandas in captivity: entering oestrus and mating; becoming pregnant and maintaining pregnancy; and maintaining healthy, active cubs. The success of this year's breeding shows just how well they have overcome some of these challenges.
Wendy
Manager of Conservation Programs, Zoos SA
Photo 1: The 16 pandas born at Bifengxia making their public debut on stage
Photo 2: Some of the panda cubs making their public debut – most are around 3 months of age.
