Li Li gives birth to Chengdu's first panda cub of 2011 on July 24
Li Li gave birth to a female cub on July 24, 2011 at 14:51 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, after a 128 day gestation.
Li Li was born on September 3, 1992 and is 19 years old. For giant pandas, this age is quite old to be a Mum.
She came into oestrous in March, but failed to copulate with the male panda selected by breeding specialists at the Panda Base. Therefore, specialists matched her with male panda Qiu Bang (Shu Hin in Japanese), who was born at Adventure World Shirahama in Japan. They collected Qiu Bang’s semen and performed AI on Li Li.
On 24 June, Li Li began to show obvious prenatal signs, such as decreased food consumption and she was transferred to the Sun Nursery House before the birth of her cub. On 22 July, she became increasingly restless and kept walking almost the whole night of 23 July. At 12:20 on 24 July, her water broke and Li Li cleaned her fur in preparation for the arrival of a new life. At 14:51, after several contractions, the cub was delivered. With the cub’s loud cry, Li Li was a qualified mother, she held her cub gently in her mouth and cradled her in her arms.
Examination confirmed that the new born is a female and weighs 161 grams. Both the baby giant panda and Li Li are now doing well.
The captive population of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding contains 97 giant pandas and Chengdu is home to the largest captive-bred population of giant pandas in the world.
Source: Chengdu Panda Base. Pictures by Lan Jingchao
Visit also Lan Jingchao’s Xiong Mao Blog & Pambassador Yumiko Kajiwara’s Blog to see more pictures and videos.
