This week, Earth Report travels to China to follow the remarkable work of Chinese scientists at the Wolong Research Centre as they struggle to keep one of the world's most lovable mammals from extinction. This is the story of the giant panda.

Dwindling numbers

When the ancestors of human beings had only just learnt how to walk upright, the footprints of the Giant Panda were already all over East and South East Asia. But the peak population of the family of giant pandas has diminished greatly
since then.

Today, the total population of Pandas wavers at around one thousand, including some 100 animals in captivity. More seriously, in captivity few seem to have the natural desire to mate.

At the Wolong Research Centre, researchers are trying to breed as many giant pandas as possible in order to help maintain a viable captive population.

Jia Jia and Xin Xing - a love story

Female pandas ovulate for only two days out of their ten day oestrus cycle - a very narrow target for successful mating. And pandas are very picky when choosing a mate. Researchers try to stimulate the courting process between males and females but in the end - the pandas choose.

Two pandas - Jia Jia, a female, and Xin Xing, a male - have mated naturally in captivity. But to help the process along the researchers perform an artificial fertilisation as a 'double guarantee'.

In captivity, inbreeding is a major problem. There must be at least 500 creatures within a species to avoid this. However, most pandas in zoos and breeding stations are in contact with only a dozen or less individuals making it impossible to avoid close breeding. Artificial fertilisation, however, solves the problem to some degree, allowing the pandas to have a wider range of partners. As a
result, the pandas born at Wolong are healthy.

Deliverance day

Seven months later Jia Jia approaches the moment when she will give birth and the researchers have found that she is carrying twins. Unfortunately, a mother panda is only equipped to care for a single baby. When the time comes, Jia Jia must give one of her infants up for the sake of the other.

After many hours of labour, Jia Jia gives birth to two babies. But only one survives - Shuang Shuang.

Infants of giant pandas are more dependent on their mothers than many other mammals. Only the milk of the mother can help an infant panda develop a proper immune system. However, nobody has found a way to get milk from a mother panda, let alone make a synthetic substitute. This is one of the chief reasons why it's so hard to breed pandas in captivity. Of the twenty giant pandas born every year in the world in captivity, few of them survive.

Infant vitality

In the first few days Jia Jia will not eat or drink, devoting her full attention to her new-born. In the first three months of life, Shuang Shuang's every need will be attended to by his mother.

Like many creatures, giant pandas don't conceive while rearing their young. In the wild, a new-born panda has to live with it's mother for one and a half or two years before it can survive on its own. This means that it will be one and a half or two years before the female panda can become pregnant again. By weaning in advance, Jia Jia can conceive again in the same year of her last birth.

After the first three months the researchers separate Shuang Shuang from Jia Jia and rear him on substitute food. The separation is painful for Jia Jia but measures such as this are important if the giant panda is to be saved.

Call of the wild

This year the Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Protection Center has been successful in breeding two infants in total. It may seem like a small number, but around the world only 50 pandas are born every year and out of this number only 20 have a
chance to grow up. These two baby pandas are incredibly precious.

Scientists are now investigating ways to get pandas bred in captivity back to where they belong - the wild. It is this that will complete the work of the researchers here. Work which is ensuring the survival of the giant panda.