National Zoo behaviorist David Powell spent a summer in China, where he studied the behavior of giant pandas at four different breeding centers or zoos. He, and everyone who is interested in giant pandas, wants to find ways to improve the breeding success of these endangered bears. The next seven pages are extracted from the journal Powell kept while working in China.
 

 
Beijing Zoo    
   
   
 
 

Sub-adult panda in a large, natural enclosure at the Wolong Panda Reserve.

Research Goals: Why a Successful Breeding Program Is So Important
As insurance against the possibility of giant pandas becoming extinct in the wild, it is essential that a large, self-sustaining population of giant pandas live in zoos and other breeding centers. To achieve this goal, we must find ways to increase successful breeding of pandas.

The Causes of Breeding Difficulties Is a Mystery
Currently few males in the zoo population breed naturally. Many show little or no sexual interest in females, while others are very aggressive to females. Females, too, sometimes fail to mate. For instance, females periodically have a "silent heat" in which they go through physiological estrus but do not show any behavioral signs. There is no clear medical reason for pandas' failure to breed, so we are looking for environmental factors that might influence breeding success. > next page | 2 |

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