First Panda Mating in San Diego: Research Pays Off
After only two months to adjust to his new home, Gao Gao was provided a mating opportunity with Bai Yun.
In 2003 the San Diego Zoo said goodbye to Shi Shi, the elderly male giant panda who won the hearts of San Diegans but failed to show sexual interest in the female, Bai Yun. As Shi Shi settled back into his home in China, the Zoo welcomed a new male, Gao Gao, a wild-born panda who spent much of his 10 years in the panda facility in Fengtongzhai Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China. At six months of age Gao Gao was found alone and injured, and was brought to the reserve for treatment. Although he was returned to the wild about a year later, he began raiding crops in local villages and was brought back to the reserve.
Gao Gao’s arrival presented new opportunities and challenges for the Giant Panda Conservation Division at the San Diego Zoo's CRES. After only two months to adjust to his new home, Gao Gao was provided with a mating opportunity with Bai Yun, who experienced her annual estrus in March. Gao Gao had no previous breeding experience, although he had been given the opportunity to mate with several estrous females in China. Bai Yun had consistently displayed species-typical reproductive behavior in past years, but without a willing partner had also not yet experienced mating. Therefore, researchers faced the daunting task of orchestrating a breeding between two inexperienced animals. Fortunately, the Giant Panda Division staff had many years of experience with panda reproduction at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China, where they had videotaped more than 100 mating introductions.
Breeding management for pandas is decidedly a mix of science and art, but the experience in China allowed researchers to develop a “decision tree” to guide their efforts. Adherence to these guidelines, coupled with judicious on-the-spot favorable dispositions, produced the first surviving cub born from natural mating in the United States. The male cub Mei Sheng (meaning “Born in the USA"), now on exhibit at the San Diego Zoo, stands as testimony to these research efforts.
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