The first month in Ya’an went by very fast. So far the research is going well. I have learned so much form being here for just one month. At the beginning I was worried I would not remember the Panda names, worried it would be very difficult to communicate with the keepers, and was not sure how I would remember all of the Panda behaviors, but after the first week of training and a little bit of trial and error, I got into the swing of things. After a month of many Panda mattings I feel very comfortable and confidant with recording panda pre-mating and mating behaviors.
Zhen Zhen
Since I am from San Diego, I have been enjoying watching, recording and taking photographs of several of the San Diego born pandas. Last week I got to see Zhen Zhen, a San Diego born female panda, successfully mate with Lu Lu, the male superstar at Bi Feng Xia who was born in the wild. Their mating lasted 7 minutes and 45 seconds. At that time it was this years longest mating, A few days later Lu Lu beat his own record while mating with Xi Mei for 18 minutes. On average Panda matings last anywhere form 20 seconds to a couple of minutes. Theses long matings were very popular and went viral in the panda world. There was a news crew here recording the enduring mating sessions.
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- Lu Lu doing a handstand and marking his territory
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- Zhen Zhen rubbing against the wall to attract Lu Lu
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- Lu Lu
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- Zhen Zhen taking soaking up some sun (she must miss San Diego!)
With a month and a half left, I look forward to learning more about Pandas by observing them and talking the the staff and also look forward to taking a few days off to traveling around China, visit the other Panda bases and of course experience more of the culture and food.
By Ryan Boarman
Great to hear about & see Zhen Zhen. Lots of media cover of breeding ritual. Has ZZ been mated without AI? It has been reported both Bai Yun & Mei Xiang have been given Ai & also the outcome of the marathon was incomplete & so AI was used. Is this usual? I can’t see what I am typing so I hope it’s legible . Thankyou.
Julie, sometimes if the managers think that the breeding was “poor” quality – maybe they broke apart really soon or the female was moving a lot – they will AI to ensure that a pregnancy happens. So it is pretty usual for natural matings to be followed with AI, though in my experience this is happening less and less as we get better at predicting natural matings. Were you having trouble typing on the mobile site or full site? – we just updated the mobile so if it was the mobile I’ll need to go and fiddle with settings 🙂
Thanks for reading and keeping updated on our little non-profit!