Staff are scared mama panda will reject baby then celebrate when her instincts finally kick in
The humble giant panda is nature conservation’s mascot. Since the WWF adopted it as its logo, it’s been cemented in people’s minds. As large as it is, the giant panda starts out as an itty-bitty, helpless little thing.
Newborn pandas are frail, hairless, pink, and very vulnerable.
They’re ridiculously tiny, and it takes a lot of work and time for a mother panda to raise and protect a cub. Min Min the panda here is about to meet her baby, and we’re about to see just how complicated panda reproductive behavior can be.
The staff at this panda breeding center are working hard to raise every single panda that comes along.
Min Min’s baby was monitored and nursed away from her.
This made the baby healthy, but also exposed it to many other smells. Smells that a mother panda might be wary of.
Giant pandas (scientific name : Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are notoriously tedious and tricky to breed. The only times they can conceive is during a tiny window of 2-3 days in the ovulation period. Miss it, and you’ll have to wait another year for another chance. You see why they were notorious for being on the endangered species list.
Considering the time they spent apart and the presence of foreign scents, there was a very real possibility that Min Min would reject the baby.
This would obviously not be good.
As much as the baby cried and wailed for mama, Min Min paid it no attention.
It was time for the staff to brainstorm. Their solution was to clean Min Min’s enclosure and make the environment more comfortable. Maybe then, Min Min would play the role of mom that she was meant to.
Now with a freshly cleaned enclosure and some peace of mind, they tried again.
They placed the helpless baby next to Min Min, and after some tense and uncertain several seconds, she finally accepted the baby!
I love seeing family reunions. Especially when the parties involved are adorable giant pandas.
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Notice that dramatic size difference?
Panda babies are only 1/900th the size of their parents. That’s a greater size difference than other members of the bear family, Ursidae. Along with kangaroos and opossums (both marsupials), giant pandas hold a bit of a record for having the smallest babies relative to the adults.
It’s all on the 150-kilogram adults to watch over their butter-stick-sized babies. The fur and distinct panda colors do eventually set in though!
Currently, there are just around 1,864 giant pandas in the wild according to WWF’s website.
Habitat loss and poaching have hit giant pandas hard, and being notoriously slow-breeding bears makes recovery pretty difficult.
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But laws are in place now, and efforts are working wonders for the bears.
Watch the beautiful moment below!
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Source: BBC Earth on YouTube, WWF, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute