Giant+Panda+Reproduction+and+Development

Giant Panda Reproduction and Development By Langley Grace, Sophia, and Johanne  During mid March and mid May, pandas mate with each other. After mating, the female runs away or growls at her mate, to tell him to get off her territory. Females are six years old before they can reproduce. Pandas give birth once every two years, until the age twenty. After they have mated, it takes 100 to 150 days to give birth. A female panda will mate for three days. When a female is ready to give birth, she finds a safe place to have a baby. If a female attracts more than one male, they have to fight with each other. A female panda will only give birth to five to eight cubs while she can.

When a baby cub is born, it looks more like a rat than its mother. The panda cub is the smallest mammal when it’s born. The born weight is 3 to 5 ounces, and are the size of a stick of butter. Baby pandas are helpless when they’re born. The cub spends most of its days sleeping and nursing. Cubs are born pink, hairless, and blind. At birth a cub is 1/900 times smaller than its mother. When a cub is born, the mother will take it in her arms and warm it. A mother panda usually gives birth to only one cub. A cub nurses for 8 to 9 months. The mother panda only feeds and cares for one cub if there are two or three, the smaller cubs will starve and die. A female panda will stand guard over her cub. Triplets are extremely rare.

A cub can’t open its eyes until 50 to 60 days, but it takes longer for it to see clearly. It takes four months before the cub will take its first steps. They like to explore and climb in trees when more than two months old. Cubs can walk a few steps by 75 to 80 days. Cubs feed on the mother’s milk for eight to nine months. The mother will not eat until the cub is 3 to 4 weeks old. When the cubs grow older, their fur feels like a German Shepard’s fur. After about a week, black patches start to grow in on the cub’s fur. Breed maturity in the pandas is mostly between four to eight years. At one and a half years old, the cub leaves its mother. BIBLIOGRAPHY __Giant Pandas__, Angel, Heather __Giant Pandas__, Claybourne, Anna __Giant Pandas__, Wong, Ovid K. [|www.bearbiology.com] [|www.national.si.edu] [|www.pandasinternational.org]