INTRODUCTION

Among eutherians, ursids have a significant disparity between maternal weight and neonatal weight (Leitch et al., 1959). The giant panda also produces a smaller litter mass relative to maternal body mass than, for example, the American black bear (Oftedal & Gittleman, 1989; Ramsay & Dunbrack, 1996; Zhu et al., 2001). The giant panda neonate is particularly altricial (i.e. highly dependent on parental care), requiring 24-hour care during the first weeks of life. This chapter deals with the issues and intricacies associated with the newborn giant panda cub, including hand-rearing and medical management.

NEONATAL CARE AND HAND-REARING: METHODS, RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Indications for hand-rearing

Although maternal care is always preferred for the giant panda cub, there are situations when human care-giving is mandatory. The most obvious is maternal abandonment, which usually becomes apparent within the first five to ten minutes of birth. A female that abandons her cub will typically leave it on the ground and move away, showing little or no interest. Intervention is also required when the dam holds the cub improperly (malpositioning). Such a cub can neither nurse nor rest, often moves about excessively (in an attempt to achieve proper positioning on its own) and then can fall to the ground. A third complication is the common production of two or more cubs (mean litter size is 1.7; range 1–3) (Schaller et al., 1985).

INTRODUCTION

The Giant Panda Biomedical Survey sought to establish a baseline of scientific information on giant pandas living in Chinese zoos and breeding centres as a first step towards establishing a self-sustaining captive population (Zheng et al., 1997; see also Chapter 2). To produce the most information that would allow an understanding of the health and reproductive status of the extant population, we chose an interdisciplinary approach to examine as many health and reproductive traits as possible. What was crucial was the trusting relationship that developed early in the process between the Chinese and American teams which led to a thorough understanding of giant panda biology – information that not only was fascinating from a scholarly perspective but also valuable to improving ex situ management.

This chapter provides detailed methods and medical findings following the assessment of more than 60% of the living Chinese population of giant pandas (as existed in 1996 when the need for a Biomedical Survey was recognised). The results in this chapter address issues ranging from disease conditions to reproductive compromise, all of which ultimately allowed classifying each animal as to its usefulness in achieving the goal of population self-sustainability. The practices and reference values described here will also be useful to those who are interested in closely studying and managing giant pandas in the future.