![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_catBai Yun, a twenty-year-old giant panda who has been at the San Diego Zoo since 1996, gave birth to her sixth cub on Sunday morning. WOO-HOOOO!
From the Los Angeles Times website:
Bai Yun the panda gives birth to her sixth cub at San Diego Zoo
BY TONY PERRY
July 31, 2012
Add this to world records: The panda Bai Yun gave birth to her sixth cub since arriving at the San Diego Zoo. That's thought to be the highest number of surviving pandas born at a breeding facility outside the endangered species' native China.
Through a closed-circuit camera, nervous zookeepers, veterinarians and researchers had been on "panda watch" for several days. Because of Bai Yun's advanced age (20), the pregnancy was considered "high risk."
At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, after an estimated three hours of labor, Bai Yun gave birth to a 4-ounce cub. Cub and mother appear to be doing fine, according to zoo officials.
The birth gives the zoo four pandas, more than any other zoo in the United States, officials said: Bai Yun, her mate Gao Gao, their 3-year-old son Yun Zi and now the unnamed cub, whose sex will not be known for several months.
Under a panda-loan agreement with the Chinese government, four other cubs born to Bai Yun have been sent to a panda research facility in China: Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen.
Five of Bai Yun's six cubs were the product of mating with Gao Gao. Bai Yun's first cub, Hua Mei, born in 1999, was the product of artificial insemination: Her first intended mate, Shi Shi, was uninterested in mating. Shi Shi was replaced in 2003 by the more lustful Gao Gao.
Bai Yun, who arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996, may be at the end of her reproductive years, officials said.
Bai Yun and the new cub won't be on display for several months -- as they undergo a crucial "bonding period" -- but they will be visible on the Panda Cam on the zoo's website. Gao Gao and Yun Zi are kept away from Bai Yun and the cub.
The road to a panda birth is not easy.
For starters, the female is in season only one to two days a year. And it is not uncommon for males and females to not like each other much (Bai Yun, for example, tried frantically to get Shi Shi interested in mounting her, without success).
Even after successful mating has occurred, a fertilized egg remains suspended within the female panda until something in the environment triggers it to implant. Just what acts as a trigger remains a mystery to researchers.
This, however, is known: Pandas, with their hypnotic black-and-white coloration, are considered the most popular animals ever displayed at U.S. zoos.
A more personal -- and detailed -- report at the San Diego Zoo's blog is here: Bai Yun Gives Birth
The video:
Bai Yun has her baby; the panda team is over the moon.
And, the Panda Cam, streaming live from the den, twenty-four-hours a day.
From the Los Angeles Times website:
Bai Yun the panda gives birth to her sixth cub at San Diego Zoo
BY TONY PERRY
July 31, 2012
Add this to world records: The panda Bai Yun gave birth to her sixth cub since arriving at the San Diego Zoo. That's thought to be the highest number of surviving pandas born at a breeding facility outside the endangered species' native China.
Through a closed-circuit camera, nervous zookeepers, veterinarians and researchers had been on "panda watch" for several days. Because of Bai Yun's advanced age (20), the pregnancy was considered "high risk."
At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, after an estimated three hours of labor, Bai Yun gave birth to a 4-ounce cub. Cub and mother appear to be doing fine, according to zoo officials.
The birth gives the zoo four pandas, more than any other zoo in the United States, officials said: Bai Yun, her mate Gao Gao, their 3-year-old son Yun Zi and now the unnamed cub, whose sex will not be known for several months.
Under a panda-loan agreement with the Chinese government, four other cubs born to Bai Yun have been sent to a panda research facility in China: Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen.
Five of Bai Yun's six cubs were the product of mating with Gao Gao. Bai Yun's first cub, Hua Mei, born in 1999, was the product of artificial insemination: Her first intended mate, Shi Shi, was uninterested in mating. Shi Shi was replaced in 2003 by the more lustful Gao Gao.
Bai Yun, who arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 1996, may be at the end of her reproductive years, officials said.
Bai Yun and the new cub won't be on display for several months -- as they undergo a crucial "bonding period" -- but they will be visible on the Panda Cam on the zoo's website. Gao Gao and Yun Zi are kept away from Bai Yun and the cub.
The road to a panda birth is not easy.
For starters, the female is in season only one to two days a year. And it is not uncommon for males and females to not like each other much (Bai Yun, for example, tried frantically to get Shi Shi interested in mounting her, without success).
Even after successful mating has occurred, a fertilized egg remains suspended within the female panda until something in the environment triggers it to implant. Just what acts as a trigger remains a mystery to researchers.
This, however, is known: Pandas, with their hypnotic black-and-white coloration, are considered the most popular animals ever displayed at U.S. zoos.
A more personal -- and detailed -- report at the San Diego Zoo's blog is here: Bai Yun Gives Birth
The video:
Bai Yun has her baby; the panda team is over the moon.
And, the Panda Cam, streaming live from the den, twenty-four-hours a day.
