CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- The baby boy of the giant panda “Mang Zai” in Chongqing Zoo was 100 days old on October 13. Chongqing Zoo starts to ask the public’s help to name the baby soon. Chongqing Zoo has been raising giant pandas since the 1960s and helping the giant pandas to breed panda cubs since the 1980s. So far, the giant pandas in Chongqing Zoo have given birth to 31 litters of panda cubs. There are a total of 22 giant pandas in Chongqing Zoo, making it the city zoo with the most pandas in China.

We’ve learned from the keepers of giant pandas in the zoo about the stories behind the protection and breeding of giant pandas, the national treasures of China once endangered.

Mangzai is delivered of the fattest panda baby

Giant panda Mang Zai gave birth to a baby boy on July 6, 2023. The baby weighed 191g at birth, which is the heaviest giant panda born at Chongqing Zoo.

"Mang Zai enjoyed being a mother in the maternity ward, while our staff members on duty are nervous and watchful," said Zhang. Since Mang Zai was born, the staff had been working in several shifts, including technical directors and experienced nurseries. Experts from the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan were also invited.

Mang Zai had a fierce maternal instinct and sufficient milk to feed her baby, and she had been feeding her baby on her own. However, the staff members of the zoo worried that the mother may be frightened by some unexpected situation and thus hurt the baby.

“It's a great test of our panda keepers’ good powers of observation. They are so observant that they can hear a needle drop in the quiet maternity ward.” Usually, the voice of a giant panda cub is loud. If a husky voice is heard, the physical condition of the panda cub should be further checked, and the frequency of behaviors such as feeding and defecation should also be observed.

With meticulous care of the panda keepers, the baby's weight grew very fast. It now weighs 6.26kg.

We “stole” the baby panda in order to save it

"This is the third time that the Giant Panda House has been rebuilt and expanded. The Giant Panda House was built in 1958, expanded in 1960, and again in 1988.” Zhang Naicheng showed the reporters around the new panda house which was recently put into operation.

"The 1980s and 1990s were critical years for giant panda breeding. Before this period, the survival rate of panda cubs was very low." When Zhang Naicheng first started working in the zoo, he heard from the experienced workers that Chongqing Zoo began breeding giant pandas in the 1980s, and the first giant panda cub was successfully bred in 1985. No panda cubs had survived before.

“We lacked in conditions, technology, and experience in panda breeding,” Zhang remembered that when air conditioning was unavailable in the panda house, they needed to use a large number of ice cubes to cool the giant pandas. For those baby pandas that needed artificial feeding, they used their body heat to warm the babies... “Later, we had constant-temperature incubators with a temperature of about 27℃,” said Zhang Naicheng. In the 1990s, the use of incubators solved the problems concerning temperatures and humidity.

Besides, having twins is also an obstacle for panda breeding. When giant pandas give birth to twins, they usually abandon one of them and keep the other.” In this case, we have to take the risk of “stealing” one of the cubs and find a way to get some milk for it." Zhang Naicheng added that it was difficult for the cubs to survive without breast milk.

Thanks to the improvement of technologies and the rich experience accumulated, Zhang Naicheng and his colleagues have witnessed the success of twin feeding. In 2006, giant panda “Ya Ya” in Chongqing Zoo, gave birth to twins. "I knew Yaya better, so I took advantage of her distraction and stole the baby, who was later called ‘You You’." Zhang recalled that in order to get some breast milk from Ya Ya for its baby, he took the risk of getting close to Ya Ya again, and successfully obtained breast milk. The twins survived healthily after being fed breast milk. (Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)