Giant panda mother, Bai Yun, with her 13-day-old cub, Su Lin.
Maternal Care Strategies in Giant Pandas and Other Bears
Nearly all species of bears are conservation-dependent and many of them are endangered. Wild populations are on the decline—even for species such as the polar bear, that once seemed to have a relatively secure future due to the remoteness of their range. Declining habitat, human encroachment, and increasing human disturbance and human-bear conflict are major culprits. Conservation management of wild populations is now important for all species of bears. Captive breeding programs are of increasing importance, as captive centers are predicted to play an increasing role in meta-population management (that is, genetic management of many small and increasingly isolated populations, including translocation, to exchange breeding stock).
A parameter important for population sustainability is the production and care of cubs, yet little is known about bear reproductive biology and maternal care patterns. There are no scientific publications on the mother-infant relationship in the denning phase for any bear species, except for the giant panda. The Giant Panda Conservation Unit has worked with five of the eight species of bears and has devised a detailed ethogram (a list of definitions of specific behaviors) for recording behavior patterns between mother and cub. Staff will use this as a tool to understand the mother-infant relationship in bears, including how much mothers invest in offspring, the possible costs of this investment, and why mothers may provide inadequate care or abandon or even kill cubs. This study will be conducted across several institutions, seeking out partnerships with institutions that have bears. The main focus will be the most endangered bears (other than giant pandas, which have already been studied): sun, sloth, spectacled, Asiatic black, and polar bears.
Ultimately, the plan is to study at least eight mothers and cubs for each species to make the data more generalizable to the species. The expected outcome is to obtain a picture of what good (and poor) maternal care looks like in each species, and use this information (1) to make management recommendations that will nurture offspring production and survival and (2) to establish baselines so that the impacts of human disturbances, in the wild or in managed care, can be identified.
