MUMMY BEAR
Panda expert tells why Tian Tian will be so good with new cubs – she’s done it before
IF all goes well, she will soon give birth to Scotland’s first-ever panda cub – or cubs.
Though there are still unanswered questions about her pregnancy – When exactly is she due? Could it be twins? – one thing is certain: Tian Tian will make a brilliant mother.
The panda expert who knows her best has revealed that the ten-yearold, who has already had two cubs, has strong maternal and nurturing instincts.
Looking at the stories of her fiveyear-old son and daughter, it seems certain any cubs Tian Tian has in Edinburgh will also turn out to be larger-than-life characters. Her two previous cubs have developed unusual reputations – one as a pickpocket, the other as a psychic.
Edinburgh Zoo last week formally announced it believes the giant panda is expecting a baby – only days after we revealed staff were preparing for the arrival.
The birth of panda cubs at the zoo would be hailed around the world as a great boost for the conservation of the endangered species – as well as generating millions in ticket sales and tourist revenue.
As anticipation mounts that Tian Tian may give birth within weeks, the Scottish Mail on Sunday has spoken to an expert who knows firsthand her skills as a mother. Belgian Jeroen Jacobs is an ambassador for China’s main panda breeding centre and also sits on the country’s panda breeding committee.
In August 2009, Tian Tian gave
‘Sometimes they play aggressively’
birth to Bo Si and his twin sister Shen Wei at a breeding centre in Sichuan Province.
Mr Jacobs has closely followed the progress of the two young bears at their new home at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou and last week confirmed they were thriving. He said: ‘When it was being decided which pandas would go to Edinburgh, one of the things the zoo asked was to get a female who had bred before so they knew how she would react and that she would be able to look after a cub.
‘First-time mothers can reject cubs but Tian Tian did fine with Bo Si and Shen Wei so she should do well with a possible first cub for the UK too. If you look at them, you can really see that their mother is Tian Tian because she has a more sharp face and a bigger nose – that’s something you see on both of the cubs.
‘If you look at those two pandas, you really can see that part of Tian Tian in their face.’
Mr Jacobs was photographed with Shen Wei shortly before she and her brother moved home. Knowing she would be given honey, carrots and ‘panda cake’ to keep her happy, the cub was excited when they were introduced and allowed him to share a bench swing with her.
Mr Jacobs, 28, said: ‘Back then they were quiet and peaceful, but when I saw them two years later they were strong and had grown up a bit already. They were in a group of seven pandas and liked to play. Sometimes they would play aggressively with each other.’
As Bo Si and Shen Wei grew, they developed their own personalities, with the former being hailed as a psychic after he was apparently able to predict correctly that the first gold medallist of the 2010 Asian Games – in his adopted home city of Guangzhou – would be Chinese.
Bo Si – in an admittedly somewhat unscientific test - opted for a bamboo stick, representing a Chinese athlete, over an apple, which signified a foreign one. His prophesying abilities were confirmed when China’s Yuan Xiaochao won gold in the martial art of wushu.
Shen Wei has acquired a reputation as a ‘wild child’ – with a tendency to pick pockets. She stole a purse from a Chinese news reporter who was ‘interviewing’ her.
When the twins were born, zoo keepers used the technique of ‘cubswapping’ – as it is unlikely both would have survived otherwise. In the wild, female giant pandas take care of only the first, strongest cub, leaving any others to die. The same thing would happen in captivity if humans did not intervene.
Staff take any second or third cubs to a nursery, where they are bottlefed and cared for – but the animals are swapped with their siblings every couple of hours so they maintain contact with the mother.
A similar set-up could be used in Edinburgh if Tian Tian, who failed to mate with partner Yang Guang but was artificially inseminated in April, has twins again.
Mr Jacobs said: ‘They swap them often, especially at the beginning, and the cub that’s not with the mother stays in an incubator. The keepers are constantly dealing with that cub, making sure it has a good temperature and is not too hot.
‘It’s important in the first days the cubs get enough milk. They mix powdered milk for a baby and powdered milk for a puppy with a little panda milk, to make sure the female has enough to feed both cubs.’