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Successful Rearing of Twins by a Female Giant Panda in Captivity

HUANG Xiangming,ZHANG Zhihe,YU Jianqiu,YU Xinming,LAN Jinchao,LI Mingxi1 LIU Xuanzhen,Koji Imazu,Tatsuko Nakao   

  • Online:2006-02-24 Published:2008-07-07

圈养大熊猫母兽成功哺育双胞胎成活初探

黄祥明,张志和,余建秋,余星明,兰景超,李明喜,刘选珍,Koji Imazu,Tatsuko Nakao   

  1. 成都大熊猫繁育研究基地,濒危动物繁殖与保护遗传四川省重点实验室,成都

Abstract: It is very difficult for the female giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to simultaneously take care of twins in captivity. In 2003, MeiMei, who was sent to Japan for an international collaborative study, became the first female giant panda to successfully raise both of her twins. This article describes the successful mother-rearing of both infants. The main factors that contributed to this success were 1) MeiMei had a strong maternal instinct, and prolific experience to have reared her babies, these were very important for her to simultaneously take care of her twins, 2) adequate maternal nutrition, and a suitable rearing environment, and 3) human assistance. In addition, we compared the daily growth of the twins to the growth of MeiMei's cubs from 2000 and 2001. We discuss the implications these data have on rearing twins in captivity and how they can be used to increase twins' survival rate in captivity.

Key words: Captivity, Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Rearing, Twins

摘要: 圈养大熊猫产下双胞胎后,母兽一般难以同时哺育二仔。2003年,圈养大熊猫母兽“梅梅”同时哺育双胞胎成活,本文对该首例哺育双胞胎成活的原因进行了初步分析,认为满足母兽的营养需求、适宜的育幼环境及人工护理,特别是“梅梅”的母性好、有丰富的育幼经验、食欲强、泌乳充足等在同时哺育双胞胎成活中起着重要作用,同时对“梅梅”哺育的双胞胎与其哺育的另两只单胎幼仔的体重增长情况进行了比较,为圈养大熊猫成功哺育双胞胎,增加幼仔成活率,提供了有关借鉴信息和资料。