PANDA CAPTIVE BREEDING: HISTORY, DIFFICULTIES, SUCCESSES

PANDA CAPTIVE BREEDING

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A panda at the Chengdu panda facility

In 2015, 38 cubs were born in China, a record, 18 of them at Bifengxia Giant Panda Base (BFX, 140 kilometers from Chengdu. In 2016, twenty-three panda cubs were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Twelve cubs were born in September 2011.

As of April 2006, more than 180 pandas had been bred in captivity. More than 120 pandas have been born at Wolong Nature Reserve between 1980 and 2007, with 45 of them born in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding had six pandas when it opened in 1987. It had 108 in 2011. Between 1963 and 2001, 210 pandas have been born in captivity in China and 20 overseas. Many died. Four zoos in the United States have worked closely with China to raise pandas.

The Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City achieved the first successful panda breeding outside of China in 1980, but the infant, Xeng-Li, unfortunately, died after eight days. The first panda to be born and survive in the United States was born at the San Diego Zoo in August, 1999. As of March 2007, four pandas had been born at the San Diego Zoo.

Improved artificial insemination has improved the success rate of panda captive breeding. In 1980, scientists learned how to preserve male sperm by freezing it in liquid hydrogen. Later U.S. scientists provided Chinese scientists with technical knowledge of artificial insemination procedures. The success rate has improved further as scientists have learned more about when a female is ready to conceive and the number of captive pandas that can be used in artificial breeding have matured.

Scientists determine that females are receptive by monitoring the estrogen levels in their urine and taking vaginal cells and analyzing them to see how close ovulation is. After the female has been artificially inseminated, scientists don't know if she is pregnant until the embryo attaches itself to the uterus, which can take as long as four months.

When test show the female is ovulating, a male is given a chance to show his stuff. If nothing happens researchers anaesthetize him and use a technique called electro-ejaculation in which a probe is inserted into his rectum and an electrical charge causes ejaculation. The sperm is placed in catheter that is guided into place in the female’s uterus with a laparoscope (a tiny telescope with a fiber optic light often used in human medicine). Pandas have been bred with both fresh semen and frozen semen.

History of the Artificial Breeding of Pandas

panda cub born in a captive breeding center

In 1953, Chengdu Zoo began the breeding of giant pandas and this marks the beginning of breeding and artificial reproduction of the giant panda in China. Two years later, Beijing Zoo also began to breed giant pandas. Between 1953 and 2003 more than 40 zoos, parks or natural reserves in China have bred or exhibited giant pandas. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

The breeding of giant pandas under human observation first succeeded 1963 when LiLi and SenSen mated under natural circumstances and gave birth to a panda cub. In 1978, artificial fertilization successfully led to the birth of a panda cub. In 1980, artificial fertilization with refrigerated sperm succeeded at the Chengdu Zoo.

Before the 1980s, giant pandas in public zoos were mostly captured or saved from nature; in the early 1980s, a number of sick and famine-striken giant pandas in the famine caused by bamboo blossoming were rescued and put into public zoos. Since the 1990s, few pandas have been saved or captured from nature. Most rescued wild pandas have been returned to where they came from. Now, the population of pandas born by artificial reproduction exceeds that of pandas born in the wild. Between the 1950s to the early 1980s, 24 giant pandas had been given by the national leaders of China to zoos of nine countries as national gifts. However, from the 1990s, giant pandas in other countries mainly come from joint research programs with the Chinese giant panda institutes, and the ownership of all these giant pandas belong to China.

The China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center began the manual breeding of giant panda in 1980, and then moved to its newly-built base at Taoheping in 1983. In its beginning years, the main task of the center was to rescue sick and famine-striken pandas, and conduct research on artificial reproduction. Between 1980 to 1990, the center had obtained 18 giant pandas for manual breeding (4 giant pandas, a male and three females, were moved out). In 1986, the first panda cub was born successfully. Since 1991, the focus of the research center was turned to the artificial reproduction of giant pandas manually bred, and a panda-reproduction tackling plan was launched. At present, China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center has the largest manually-bred giant panda group.

Difficulties with Captive Breeding Pandas

Conservationist and zoologists initially had little success breeding pandas in captivity. In the early years the failure rate was high and the survival rate of those that were born was low with 60 percent of the pandas born dying within the first month. Of the 144 pandas born in captivity before 1995, only 43 were still alive in the late 2000s, 37 of them in China.

Nectar Gan of CNN wrote: Panda reproduction in captivity is notoriously difficult. Female pandas are in heat only once a year for about 24 to 72 hours. They’re also very picky about who they choose to mate with. And when they finally give birth, newborn pandas are extremely fragile. In the 1990s, the survival rate of cubs under human care at some breeding centers was only 10 percent, according to state media. An official at the Chengdu base recalled in an interview with state media that in 1996, whenever scientists tried to collect sperm from pandas, the bears would end up with blood in their stools – a condition that persisted for six months at a time. “The situation at the time was extremely dire, none of the captive male pandas could produce any semen,” the official was quoted as saying. [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

To increase the number of pandas, the Chinese government began offering a cash reward of $1,724 in 1992 for every panda breed in captivity. That may not sound like much money in the West but $1,724 was about five times the average salary of a worker in China at that time.

Pandas that have come in contact with humans have difficulty reproducing naturally and taking care of their young if they do give birth. Fewer than a third of captive panda’s have mated naturally. Mothers in captivity are often unable to properly take care of their young. Ling Ling, the female panda at the National Zoo in Washington, and her mate Hsing Hsing didn’t successfully mate for 10 years. She was pregnant twice and gave birth once but the cub didn't survive.

Captive breeding produces inbreeding, Scientists meet to work out the best matches among pandas with the most diverse DNA. Identification chips — with a information about pedigree, age and other basic data — have been implanted into captive panda’s to better monitor the animals and prevent inbreeding.

Some panda cubs have died because the were unable to get milk from their mothers and died of malnutrition. The Chinese hired Japanese researcher Toshi Watanabe, who invented a milking system for rats, to do the same for pandas. After five years — much of the time spent developing replicas of a panda mother’s nipples and a baby mouths using silicon — the panda milking machine was made. The milking machines are used at the panda breeding centers in Sichuan and have contributed to the increased number of pandas at the centers.

Difficulties Getting Captive Pandas Interested in Sex

Only 10 percent of male pandas in captivity can mate. To increase the odds, researching at Wolong Research center put males in pens with females in heat, show them “pornographic” videos of mating pandas and exercise their rear legs so they have no problem standing up during mating. The porn videos are thought have helped one male mate successfully. The jury is still on whether males put through “sexercise” — aimed at strengthening their pelvic and leg muscles so the could mate — achieved anything. Experiments with Viagra didn’t produce any promising results.

The boredom and stress of captive life can negatively affect reproductive behavior. Males are often not interested in sex or are so aggressive they pose a danger to fertile females. Females can be picky and 80 percent of males fail to respond appropriately to receptive females. "Because the world's captive community is so limited, finding a compatible mate can be like dating in a very small town," one scientist said. Even when both seem willing, the male is often unable to consummate the affair.

Typically, a female panda in heat is poked and prodded with a bamboo pole in the direction of the male she is supposed to mate with. The male responds by taking a whiff or her rear end and then retreats to a corner turning his back to the female, and munches on stalks of bamboo.

Improvements in the Artificial Breeding of Giant Pandas

The initial hurdles that hindered the artificial breeding program were largely overcome by the 2000s with some help from American and European scientists, said Wu Honglin, deputy director of the Shenshuping base, told CNN. “With a deeper understanding and research into pandas, along with breakthroughs in reproductive technology, it’s no longer a challenge,” Wu said. And the large captive population offers females more options. “In recent years, we have relied entirely on natural mating,” he added. [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

According to CNN: China’s breeding centers now boast cub survival rates well above 90 percent, and every year, dozens of new cubs are born. Melissa Songer, a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian, said China learned from past lessons. “It’s not that there’s never been a mistake or that things couldn’t get better, but I think things have gotten so much better so quickly,” she said.

The China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda spent 13 years' — from January 1991 to October 2003 — trying to overcome the "three key problems" of artificially breeding giant panda. 1) difficulty in panda's mating, 2) difficulty in panda's pregnancy and 3) difficulty in keeping panda cubs alive. When the research center was first established in in 1991, there were only six giant pandas; by 2003 it had 74, most of them artificially bred. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

Under human observation, natural mating often doesn't leads to success because the ovulation period of a female panda only lasts for one to three days although it may be in heat for a much longer period. In order to ensure a relatively high pregnancy ratio, high tech methods are used to determine the ovulation period and pick the ideal time for artificial fertilization. Other methods that have helped breed pandas have included: 1) improving the feeding and management of giant pandas, adjusting the feed formula, and studying the reproductive physiology of female giant pandas and their periods of ovulation, 75 percent of female giant pandas in the reproductive period gave given birth to young panda cubs. 2) The vitality of male panda sperm has been greatly increased through modifying methods of cold preservation of giant panda's sperm and defrosting it. 3) A comprehensive study of giant pandas’ hormone made it possible to chose the best time for artificial fertilization. On top of this using natural mating and artificial fertilization at the same time has great increased the chance of pregnancy.

The chance of getting twins is bigger under artificial fertilization conditions. From 1980 to 2000, the Panda Breeding and Research Center of Chengdu together with the Chengdu Zoo, had 61 panda cubs in 40 pregnancies through artificial reproduction; 38 of the 61 cubs lived up to half a year. From 1991 to 1997, 24 giant panda cubs were born and 14 (58.33 percent) survived; from 1998 to 2003, 41 giant panda cubs were born in 25 pregnancies and 38 survived. The survival rate here was 92.7 percent.

Tang Chunxiang, the chief veterinarian at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Chengdu, told The Times in 2011: “Now our focus is to improve genetic quality, control the size of the panda population and ensure better natal and pre-natal care and improved upbringing...We will not purposely reduce the number of panda births, but we will only allow those that set a proper genetic quality to breed. Others will not be allowed to reproduce or will reproduce less.” [Source: Jane, Macartney, Times of London, January 2011]

Captive Breeding Successes

In the early days of panda captive breeding, many newborn panda’s died but recent studies on the care and feeding of pandas have dramatically improved their survival rate. Of the 16 baby pandas born in 2005 at Wolong’six single cubs, and five pairs of twins — all survived and are flourishing. In 2000, nine infants were born at Wolong and eight survived the crucial first weeks. In 1999, 14 pregnant females .were recorded at the Panda Research Center in Chengdu.

Chinese scientists say that they have achieved an 84 percent success rate in the artificial breeding of pandas. As of late 2007, 128 of the 239 giant pandas in captivity were at Wolong center, the majority of which were bred in captivity. An effort has been made to breed pandas with the greatest genetic diversity possible to ensure the long term survival of the species. In August 2006, the heaviest panda born in captivity was born at the Wolong center. It weighed 218 grams. It took 34 hours for its mother to give birth, another record. The cub was born during a streak in which five pandas were born in two days. The others included two sets of twin panda sisters at the Chengdu Center .

In 2010, 31 cubs were produced in China from 38 births, both records at that time. The previous record was 25 successful live births in 2009. Twenty-five pandas were born and survived in 2005, including 16 at the Wolong center and three at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in Chengdu. Others were born at research centers and zoos in Japan and Washington D.C. Less than half that number were born in 2004. In 2006, there were 33 successful births, in 2007, 31, including a record 12 pairs of twins.

The first panda to be conceived using frozen sperm was born at Wolong in July 2009. The greatest benefit of this advancement is that sperm from pandas in zoos in San Diego, Mexico City and other places could be more easily used with animals in China and visa versa, reducing inbreeding. The methods had been tried many times before but failed. Improvements in the hawing technique are believed to be behind the success. In past only 30 percent of the sperms survived after being frozen with liquid nitrogen. This time 80 percent survived.

In 2014, the first known newborn panda triplets to survive into adulthood were born at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou. AFP reported: The mother, named Juxiao, which means "chrysanthemum smile", delivered the triplets in the early hours, but was too exhausted to take care of them afterwards. A video from the zoo showed Juxiao sitting in the corner of a room as she delivered her cubs for four hours and licking them after they were born. By the time it came to the delivery of the third cub, she was lying on her side. Her cubs were initially put in to incubators while Juxiao regained her strength, but they have now been brought back to their mother for nursing and were being attended to by a round-the-clock team of feeders, the zoo said on Tuesday. “The cubs were naturally conceived when the zoo paired 12-year-old Juxiao and the 17-year-old father, Linlin. The triplets celebrated their fifth birthday in 2019/. [Source: Agence France-Presse, theguardian.com, August 12, 2014]

In 2017, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda saw a record-breaking 42 panda cubs born, a significant milestone for the breeding program and a positive sign for the future of this endangered species. In 2022, fifteen giant pandas — including four sets of twins — were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Panda Breeding at Bifengxia Giant Panda Base

Bifengxia Giant Panda Base (BFX, 140 kilometers from Chengdu) is a giant panda research and breeding facility in Bifengxia Town, Ya'an, Sichuan, It opened in 2004, and is the home of several giant pandas and breeding laboratory. On the panda breeding activity there: Jennifer S. Holland wrote in National Geographic Traveller: “In this setting, little about panda production is natural. Dropping a male in with a female can even lead to aggression instead of mating. To set the mood, breeders in China have tried “panda porn”—videos of pandas mating—mostly for the encouraging sounds; apples on sticks to tempt males into mounting position; Chinese herbs; and even Viagra and sex toys. Director Zhang Hemin, also known as Papa Panda, recalls an awkward shopping trip to an “adult toy store” in Chengdu. “We told the clerk we needed a female-genital stimulator that had to warm up,” he told me. “Then I had to ask for a receipt to submit to the government for reimbursement.”[Source: Jennifer S. Holland, National Geographic Traveller, August, 2016]

“Now protocol includes artificial insemination, sometimes with sperm from two males. Part of the challenge is that female pandas are in estrus just once a year for only 24 to 72 hours. Endocrinologists monitor hormones in the urine that can predict ovulation and may inseminate several times within a day or two to boost the chances of implantation. Then, for months, females keep the keepers guessing. “It’s hard to even know if a panda is pregnant,” says BFX’s director, Zhang Guiquan. “The fetus is so tiny that it’s easy to miss on an ultrasound.” Pandas can have delayed implantation, extremely varied gestation times, random hormone fluctuations, and quiet miscarriages.

“The artificialness of this and other aspects of their lives worries Sarah Bexell of the University of Denver, who worked at another panda breeding center for years: “Bears are so stoic, especially pandas. You really have to freak them out to get a reaction that we’d perceive as stress.” They learn to cope and may seem relaxed, she says, “but if we could sit down and interview them, we’d hear something very different.” Smithsonian ecologist William McShea adds: “What we are asking them to do—basically have sex in a phone booth with a crowd of people watching—has little to do with real panda reproduction.”

“Liu Juan, petite and shy behind square-rimmed glasses, is working a 24-hour shift, her second one that week. She has a toddler son who stays at home with family. “This job is more intense,” she says of mothering the pandas, “but I love being with them.” Incubating the newborns, bottle-feeding, rocking, burping, responding to their bleats for attention, rubbing bellies to stimulate the gut, weighing and measuring, and keeping toddlers from wandering—“the work is nonstop, a crazy amount,” she says. Her puffy orange slippers shush across the floor as she chases an escapee. “My body never recovers. I’ve lost hair from being under so much stress.” There is massive pressure, she says, to keep the cubs alive: “They are so important to China.”

Issues with Artificial Breeding of Pandas

Some animal rights activists take issue with the ways some of the artificial breeding practices. Nectar Gan of CNN wrote: Some panda advocates have criticized the use of electroejaculation, a common technique for collecting sperm from mammals, especially on cattle farms. It involves inserting an electric probe with mild currents into the rectum of a male under anesthesia to stimulate ejaculation — a process that some critics say is cruel and harmful. (The procedure is also used on humans when a patient cannot ejaculate on their own due to a spine injury, nerve problem or other condition.) [Source: Nectar Gan, CNN, January 27, 2025]

The New York Times published a detailed investigation into China’s captive breeding program. Aggressive artificial breeding has previously killed at least one panda, burned the rectum of another and caused vomiting and injuries in others, the report said. It cited more than 10,000 pages of documents, including many from the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

To address concerns, the Chengdu breeding base conducted a public experiment allowing panda fans to experience the strength of the electric currents firsthand. Visitors were invited to touch an electric probe set to the same voltage used on pandas, and according to the center’s statement, none reported feeling any noticeable sensations.

But criticism and questions have persisted. Wang Donghui, a scientist at the Chengdu base, is part of a research team that developed a new technique to freeze panda semen to improve its viability – and increase the success rate of artificial insemination. The breakthrough was widely hailed in state media at the time and earned him the nickname “Doctor Panda.” However, Wang now avoids discussing the topic — or anything related to panda sperm and artificial insemination. “We’ve been attacked,” he explained off camera.

Cloned Pandas, Genome Mapping and the Ignoble Prize

Scientists in China say that cloning pandas is very close to reality. The Fuzhou Panda Research Center is working on a panda cloning project and have said they are one only step away from successfully cloning pandas. The first panda embryo using the ovum of a different species, a rabbit, was created in 1998. In the early 2000s, an embryo was successfully implanted into the uterus of another species, a cat. The only obstacle they need to overcome is having the embryo develop into a fetus that stays alive long enough to be born.

Cloning pandas with bears as surrogate mothers is being investigated. Researchers have said the technique that holds the most promise is fusing panda egg cells with black bear cells and raising the embryo in a black bear surrogate mother. The same or similar technology used to clone a gaur could be used on pandas (See Asian Animals). Some say everything possible should be done to save the pandas. Critics claim that cloning reduces the genetic pool of pandas and would make them vulnerable to disease.

In the late 2000s, scientists in China with the help of scientists from the United States, Britain, Denmark and Canada mapped the genome of the giant panda by studying the DNA of three-year old female named Jing Jing. Among the things that scientists figured out was that pandas are definitely related to bears not raccoons. One of the hopes of the research is that scientists can use the information to find ways to make it easier for pandas to mate.

In 2009, Chinese and Japanese researchers were awarded an Ignoble Prize by a Harvard-based humor magazine for developing a method to cut kitchen refuge by using bacteria derived from the feces of giant pandas.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, CNTO (China National Tourism Administration) David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2025