The female giant panda Tian Tian at Edinburgh zoo has been
placed on 24-hour surveillance after the latest hormone tests revealed
she could be pregnant.
From Monday, the panda will be constantly
monitored and the zoo's team of panda keepers will have access to CCTV
footage in their homes to look for signs of labour such as restless
behaviour and bleating.
Haiping Hu, a panda keeper from the China
Conservation and Research Centre, arrived in Edinburgh on Saturday and
will be on hand to assist if a cub or cubs are born during the next two
weeks.
If Tian Tian is pregnant, she may not carry to the full term. Her body may reabsorb any foetuses or reject them.
Staff
at the zoo say that to keep her relaxed she has access to her off-show
area where her cubbing box is located, and she is spending most of her
time there. Additional insulation has been placed in her enclosure to
reduce noise.
Hu has experience of many panda births, especially
the birth of twins, and for the next two weeks she will be available to
assist the team in Edinburgh. New incubators have been placed in the
panda nursery and the keepers are prepared to work in shifts to provide
24-hour care for a cub or cubs that may need to be hand-reared.
Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland,
said: "What we are seeing in Tian Tian's hormones is encouraging, but
we still cannot guarantee a pregnancy or successful birth.
"If indeed she is pregnant, this is an extremely risky time for panda pregnancies.
"Female
giant pandas can actually reabsorb any foetuses or reject them if
pregnant. If she is pregnant and carries to full term, we believe a cub
or cubs could be born any time over the next two weeks. Although there
are no certainties, we must err on the side of caution and be on red
alert from today.
"Tian Tian's current routine is to spend a lot
of her day sleeping in the cubbing box in her off-show indoor enclosure,
though she does tend to come outside for a stroll and stretch on her
climbing frame in the afternoons.
"We are keeping the lights
switched off for most of the day inside to help mimic the atmosphere of a
den that she would seek in the wild."
Fact of the day!
Today’s science fact is about the Texan Horned Lizard.
This lizard deters predators by shooting its own blood into their face. Out of its eyes. Apparently the blood taste......Learn More!
Keepers monitoring Tian Tian constantly by CCTV for signs of labour believe she may give birth within two weeks
After the Birth of Panda in National Zoo on 24/08/2013. I have one more Good News for You.
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| The giant panda Tian Tian in her enclosure at Edinburgh zoo. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA |
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| FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2012 photo Mei Xiang, a giant female panda, rests at the National Zoo in Washington. Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Friday, Aug. 23. |
It’s a … panda!
Zoologists at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, were greeted with good news on Friday, when giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a baby panda cub.
Staffers at the zoo had kept their eyes glued to Mei Xiang over the last few weeks, as she began to show signs that she might be either pregnant or experiencing pseudopregnancy (false indicators of pregnancy, which is common among pandas).
Any uncertainty was cleared up once and for all on Friday, when the zoo confirmed that not only was Mei Xiang pregnant, she had successfully given birth. Her cub came into the world today at 5:32 PM after about two hours of labor.
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| This still image from the PandaCam at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, shows giant panda Mei Xiang on August 23, 2013, after the zoo announced the panda was in labor. A zoo spokeswoman said the pandas water broke the afternoon of August 23, and she appeared to be having contractions. |
Some Smithsonian Zoo staff members were able to watch the news about the new cub as it happened, through the zoo’s PandaCam.
“I’m glued to the new panda cams and thrilled to hear the squeals, which appear healthy, of our newborn cub,” Dennis Kelly, the zoo’s director, said in a statement. Though the cam had been broadcasting around the clock, it was recently turned off to public viewers out of respect for Mei Xiang, though the zoo staff was able to watch it internally to monitor her condition.
Kelly reports that Mei Xiang immediately picked up the cub and began cradling it, a great sign of mama/baby bonding. Mei Xiang has given birth two times before — her first cub is now living in China, while her second sadly died shortly after birth.
Zoo workers are letting Mei Xiang bond with the baby for about two days before going in to see if it’s a boy or a girl and find out if he or she is healthy. However, there’s one thing they do know for sure — the panda cam will be going back on soon, and all of America will be able to check out the cuteness of the country’s youngest panda.