The Evolution Of A Baby Panda

Dark Roasted Blend has some amazing photos of a baby panda growing from birth to about 3 months old.

The photos were taken at China's Wolong Reserve.

A record 30 surviving giant pandas were born at breeding centers and zoos around the world in 2006. Last year, cubs born at the National Zoo and at the San Diego Zoo helped set the previous record of 25 surviving panda cubs. In 2004, only nine cubs survived.

At two breeding centers and a zoo in China, artificially inseminated pandas gave birth to 31 cubs, of which 27 survived. A cub born at Zoo Atlanta and the twins born in Japan bring the total to 30.

Natural reproduction is rare among pandas in captivity. Efforts to breed pandas by artificial insemination date back to the 1960s. A major breakthrough occurred in 1980, when scientists mastered the freezing of panda sperm in liquid hydrogen, which preserves it until females are able to become pregnant, just two or three days a year. Other advances include improved artificial insemination techniques and increased knowledge of pandas, in particular their nutrition needs, hormone patterns, genes, and behavior.

Thanks to artificial insemination, more than 90 pandas have been born and survived at the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center since 1983.

The newborn panda weighs only 100 grams at birth (the fully grown animal weighs up to 160 kilos) and remains without black/white coloration for the whole first month of its life.

These photos are not all the same baby, but a collaboration of different Pandas growing and getting stronger.





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