Society

Fertile grandma panda gives birth again

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-14 02:06

CHENGDU -- A panda cub born Friday afternoon at a breeding center in southwest China is just another panda bear born at the center. What makes her unique is her mother.

Jini, the panda mother, gave birth to the female cub at the age of 17. She is compared to a human in her sixties, the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan Province said in a statement.

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The female cub weighed 125 grams. She was born at 14:41 p.m., four hours after Jini went into labour. Both the mother and cub are in good health, said the statement.

Jini, a resident of Beijing Zoo, was sent to the Wolong center this March for the cub-birth purpose because the research center has developed expertise in breeding techniques.

With a 20-year breeding history, the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center is home to the world's largest captive panda population. It has helped Beijing Zoo and Chongqing Zoo and many zoos in other countries in breeding and feeding pandas.

The new cub is Jini's second. It is the eleventh cub born at the Wolong center this year.

"Pandas come into heat in the spring and give birth in autumn. This is the main reason for the panda 'baby boom'," said Dang Chunxiang, an expert with the Wolong Center.

More than 10 other pandas are expected to give birth over the next one or two months at the Wolong center.

Jini delivered her first cub "Qingqing" in 2007 when she was thirteen and a half years old, which was itself rare amongst pandas. She also entered record books with her pregnancy that lasted 324 days. Generally, pandas deliver in 120-150 days.

The length of a panda's pregnancy depends on its health and nutrition level, according to experts.

About 1,600 giant pandas are living in the wilds in China. Sichuan Province and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu are the home to most of them. Another 290 pandas are in captive-bred programs worldwide, mostly in mainland China.