Giant Panda Conservation Unit

The Giant Panda Conservation Unit of CRES is dedicated to the study of giant panda biology and to the conservation of this highly endangered species. Applied research is carried out in China and on the giant panda population at the San Diego Zoo. Its main focus is on behavior and ecology, but numerous collaborations with other CRES divisions, such as Reproductive Physiology and Genetics, are enjoyed.

The historical focus of the Unit has been on the conservation breeding program for giant pandas living in captivity, but an emerging emphasis is on field conservation. The work of scientists in the Giant Panda Unit and its collaborators at home and abroad can claim a significant role in the successful breeding programs for giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo and the Wolong Breeding Center in Sichuan, China. During the past decade, the San Diego Zoo has seen the birth of three cubs, and the Wolong population has grown from 25 to over 100. In 2006 a field research and conservation program was established in the Foping Nature Reserve (in Shaanxi, China) in partnership with ecologists at the Chinese Academy of Science. Because giant pandas belong to the family of bears, research has recently been expanded to include conservation science programs with other bear species.

Panda breeding and research at the San Diego Zoo

The Zoo’s panda team consists of members of the Panda Unit, other CRES divisions, curators, keepers, veterinarians, education, and many others. Two giant pandas, Bai Yun and Shi Shi, arrived in San Diego in September 1996, marking the beginning of a successful program. Early obstacles to breeding were solved with successful artificial insemination, leading to the birth of Hua Mei, the first surviving giant panda cub in the United States. Hua Mei has now returned to her parents’ home at the Wolong Breeding Center, where she gave birth to and raised two sets of twins. In San Diego, the second- and third-born pandas (Mei Sheng and Su Lin) were the products of natural mating. These successes can be attributed to a great deal of research on all aspects of behavior and reproduction from the many disciplines involved. Giant panda management at the San Diego Zoo is guided by science, and animal caretakers and researchers work side by side to achieve optimal well-being and reproduction. Also essential in these successes is the two-way information highway created by an active collaboration and exchange program with Chinese partners at the Wolong Breeding Center.

A decade-long collaboration with the Wolong Breeding Center, China

Members of the CRES Panda Unit have accumulated many years of work with colleagues in Wolong since 1996, when this collaboration—and friendship—began. During this period there has been a remarkable rise in the rate of natural matings, births, and cub survival. Why these recent successes? Without doubt a variety of factors have come into play. Most important is the talent and dedication of the Wolong staff. The Panda Unit’s contribution has been largely in the realm of behavioral management, but other team members—including nutritionists, physiologists, keepers, and veterinarians—have also played a significant role.

The giant panda is notorious for its reluctance to mate and rear offspring in captivity, so the Panda Unit set out to address these major obstacles to captive propagation. An early hypothesis was that captive pandas were suffering from a sort of communication failure. A series of experiments revealed that pandas have a very sophisticated olfactory communication system and, more importantly, that olfactory management was a key to reducing aggression and increasing sexual motivation to prepare normally solitary pandas for mating. Another focus was reproductive biology. Detailed studies of behavioral and physiological indicators of the female’s estrus allowed better predictions of the fertile period, and studies of male-female interactions aided in managing breeding introductions. However, management for optimal reproductive performance does not take place just during the mating season, so a series of studies and management changes were implemented to address improved panda well-being and stress reduction. And, finally, research on pregnancy, birth, maternal care, and cub development was applied to improve management following conception. The result of these and other activities is that today almost all pandas at Wolong mate naturally and successfully rear their offspring, leading to a fourfold increase in the population in 10 years.

A few years ago it was uncertain whether the captive panda population would ever be viable. Deaths exceeded births and the population depended on continuing capture of wild pandas, an activity inconsistent with conservation goals. Today the captive panda population has increased to the point that a surplus is now available for reintroduction to the wild.

Field conservation research at the Foping Nature Reserve

The aim of this emerging program, initiated in 2006, is to conduct a long-term intensive research program on the conservation behavior and ecology of giant pandas at the Foping Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province, China. Each research question addresses a specific conservation issue and has identifiable conservation value.

To benefit panda conservation, it is important to learn about the mating strategies of pandas. For example, how many male pandas win the opportunity to mate? If few males get to mate because of male-male competition or female choice, then there are greater risks to the long-term genetic health of the population. If most males fail to pass on their genes, then small populations isolated on mountaintops may suffer from inbreeding and lack of genetic diversity. Most wild populations are quite small due to encroaching human activities and habitat loss. The mating system can exacerbate this problem.

It is also important to learn about dispersal, when the young move long distances and set up a new home area elsewhere. Dispersal strategies also affect the genetics of the population and determine whether reserve size and shape is sufficient to accommodate normal dispersal. How far will dispersing pandas move, and how do they choose where to settle? Another pressing conservation need is knowledge about panda denning ecology. In many reserves, the old-growth trees were logged in past decades, and the remaining trees are too small to contain a den for pandas to give birth. Does the availability of these dens limit panda population growth? In a time of crisis, is it possible to build artificial dens that will help mothers raise cubs successfully?

The outlook for pandas in the wild is already decidedly more optimistic than a few years ago, with the Chinese government establishing nearly 40 additional panda reserves in the last decade or so. To manage these reserves and the panda populations, scientific knowledge is needed, and the only way to get it is to study these animals in their native habitat.

A second primary goal of this collaboration is for the Panda Unit to play a supportive role in continuing financial and scientific capacity-building of Chinese conservation biologists and managers working with giant pandas. This goal acknowledges the emerging scientific talent in China and the need for conservation initiatives to be largely run by Chinese nationals, as this ensures maximum long-term sustainability.

More

Conservation of the Giant Panda: Applications of Research in Communication, Reproduction, and Welfare
Read blogs by Giant Panda Conservation Unit staff.
Watch the pandas daily on Panda Cam.