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Adorable Pandas At China's Chengdu "Daycare" Center
Adorable Pandas At China's Chengdu "Daycare" Center
They are an endangered species and notoriously hard to breed. So the sight of these 14 baby pandas in China will make many an animal lover very happy.
Twenty baby pandas, of which 17 survived, have joined the 128-giant-panda-family at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Fourteen of the tiny animals were shown to the public today at the base, with researchers gently holding the clumsy cubs. Because pandas are so tiny at birth — weighing around 3oz — and have notoriously poor eyesight, they find it difficult to survive both in captivity and in the wild.
On a number of occasions, newborns have been killed because their mothers accidentally rolled on them and crushed them.
Pandas struggle to procreate because of low-sex drives and infertility issues.
There have been a variety of unusual methods used to try and encourage copulation. Pandas have been shown videos of other pandas mating and even given Viagra.
But in recent years scientists have discovered that pandas do have a strong libido — but only for three days of the year, when the females are on heat. The rest of the time, males and females cannot abide one another and will fight viciously when put together.
Armed with this knowledge, their hormones are closely monitored so that they can be placed together at precisely the right time.
For those females who still find it difficult to conceive, IVF has been used, and in 2009 the first test-tube panda was born at the Wolong research facility, in China.
With an estimated 1,800 giant pandas still in their natural habitat — the bamboo-covered mountains of Western China — and fewer than 300 in zoos and preserves, they remain on the critically-endangered list.
For long-standing cultural reasons, however (and because they can rent pandas to foreign zoos for up to £1million a year), the Communist authorities are determined to preserve their prized natural symbol.
The Chinese government has now set up 50 giant panda research centres. With more than 100 resident pandas, the one at Chengdu — the so- called ‘panda capital of the world’ — is among the most important.
Also known as the Chengdu Panda Base, the facility in Sichuan has been breeding and researching the huge black and white creatures since 1987, The not-for-profit research and breeding compound started with 6 giant pandas that were rescued from the wild.
A lot of other animals are nearing extinction too due to human's illegal harvesting and poaching for food. We can help lower the rate of extinction by reducing meat consumption. Let our partner restaurants and cafes indulge you in delicious vegetarian options at http://KindMeal.my
Source: http://dailym.ai/1JYuuvs
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