Most captive panda births were due to artificial insemination
Avi Blizovsky
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A record number of 16 giant pandas were born in captivity this year. This is what the head of the panda breeding project in China said. The list includes twins born in Japan and one cub born in California to parents loaned to the zoo by China.
As a result of the threat of extinction of the species, captive breeding programs, including artificial insemination are seen as essential to save the giant panda. Only about a thousand giant pandas remain in the wild and they feed on bamboo in the Sichuan mountains in southwest China. Only 29 female pandas were fertilized this year either naturally or by artificial insemination in the spring and as a result 19 pandas were born in the fall, of which two were born before their time and did not survive, says Zhang Zhihe, head of the Panda Breeding Technology Committee. According to him, the survival rate of 84 percent is good news for all those seeking to protect the pandas. Regarding another puppy that did not survive, there are no details.
About 140 giant pandas live in zoos and research centers around the world. 12 cubs were born in captivity and survived in 2001, and 10 in 2002. Female pandas can only get pregnant once a year - in a window of time that lasts a total of days - and they manage to conceive at most twins. Over 60 percent of male pandas in captivity show no sexual desire at all, while only ten percent of them will fertilize females naturally.
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