Kindergarten for pandas is the sweetest place in the world
The Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center in China serves the task of panda conservation and is also the cutest place in the world. There is a special "kindergarten" for the cubs of these animals. Breeding pandas is not an easy matter, these animals are so lazy that they do not even reproduce very willingly — the female gives birth to only one cub once every two years. There are only 1,864 pandas left in the wild, that's so few.
The Giant Panda Research and Breeding Center is located in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. More precisely, in his northern suburb on Mount Futoushan.
Giant pandas are well—known black and white cute bears. However, these are not exactly bears. In fact, pandas are a separate genus of animals in the bear family, having signs of martens, bears, raccoons and even dogs.
Pandas by all signs should be predators, but in fact they feed on only a few species of bamboo. This fact greatly elevated these animals in the eyes of the Chinese: from the point of view of Buddhists and Taoists, this testifies to the divinity of the beast.
In the 20th century, man, despite the divinity of pandas, destroyed them almost completely. They were killed for their valuable beautiful fur, bamboo groves were cut down, pandas with a very gentle psyche could not reproduce normally. All this led to the fact that the charming animals were on the verge of extinction. Fortunately, the Chinese authorities caught on in time. Currently, the killing of a panda in China is unconditionally sentenced to death.
In 1987, a non-profit research organization was established to study and breed pandas in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. Initially, the center contained only six large panda specimens, which were rescued from the wild.
Breeding pandas in captivity is not an easy matter. A female big panda gives birth to one cub every two years, and newborn pandyats are very vulnerable. Only by 2000 it was possible to get the first offspring, and by 2008 the center could already boast 124 cubs born in captivity. Thanks to this nursery, pandas are not threatened with extinction so acutely, although they still belong to the endangered species.
It should be noted that the cubs of the big panda are born extremely small. The average weight of a newborn is about one hundred grams, which is one nine hundredth of the mother's weight. Babies are born blind, pink, with almost no hair. At the same time, the female can bear offspring from three to five months, depending on the conditions.
After the birth of the cub, the mother begins to eat much less, devoting a lot of time and giving a lot of energy to the process of feeding and raising the baby. This process takes away a lot of strength from the female, which affects the deterioration of her health and ultimately leads to a decrease in life expectancy. In
At the big panda breeding centers, researchers and staff help female pandas take care of the cub, and this helps to save the life of both the baby and the mother. In artificially created conditions, a large panda can live for 30 years or more, whereas in the wild these animals usually live only 15-20 years.