Giant Panda Conservation Joint Project Site

Natural breeding as the top priority: For the Giant Panda Conservation Joint Project, getting pandas to breed naturally in captivity is our absolute top priority! We set up the best environments, watch their behavior and physical changes, and even check their hormone levels to figure out when the males and females are ready to mate. We always try for natural breeding first. But, if they don't mate much, or if the female is still in heat but the male just isn't interested anymore, then we'll also use artificial insemination.

Mei Mei's pregnancy and birth through artificial insemination: Mei Mei first became a mom at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in 1999 when she was 5, raising two adorable cubs! In the spring of 2000, she went into heat, and artificial insemination was done at the Chengdu base. She then moved to our park in July of that year. From early August, we started seeing signs of pregnancy, like her sleeping more, eating less, and higher pregnancy hormones in her urine. Then, on September 6th, she gave birth to a single cub, who we named 'Rauhin'! This was a huge deal because it was the first baby panda born in Japan in 12 years, ever since a panda was born at Ueno Zoo back in 1988.

Eimei & Mei Mei: 8 cubs born from 4 pairings: Our serious breeding research kicked off in 2001! In late August 2001, Mei Mei showed signs of being in heat, and that got Eimei interested too, leading to mating and a birth in December. Between 2001 and 2006, this amazing pair had 8 cubs in 4 separate births, and 6 of them grew up healthy (sadly, one passed away at just one day old, and another was stillborn). In 2003, we even had our first success raising twin pandas at the same time in captivity! Pandas usually go into heat in spring and give birth from summer to autumn, but we had two special cases where they went into heat in summer and gave birth in December, which is pretty rare. Mei Mei was such a wonderful mother, but unfortunately, she passed away from an illness in October 2008.

Eimei: Successfully mated naturally at 28 years old!: Back in the early 2000s, it was super rare for male pandas born in captivity to mate naturally. But Eimei, who came to our park when he was two, turned out to be a really special male who could! After his first successful natural mating in 2001, he's consistently mated whenever a female shows signs of being in heat. Usually, male pandas are said to breed up to around 20 years old, but Eimei actually had a cub through natural mating in 2020 when he was 28! He's amazing at keeping his breeding ability even at an older age. We collected his semen 16 times between 2001 and 2010, and it was always top-notch, just as good as the semen collected at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. We use his collected semen for artificial insemination here at our park, and we also freeze-store it as a super important source of genes for the future. In 2002, Eimei's semen was even used for artificial insemination at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, and a male cub was born that same year! So, Eimei's semen has really helped with the genetic diversity of pandas, not just at our park but also at the Chengdu base.

Pandas from our park are active all over the world.: On June 22, 2004, 'Yuhin', the first giant panda born in Japan as part of the International Giant Panda Conservation Cooperation Project, was sent to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, as agreed upon. Since then, a total of 11 pandas born at our park have moved to China. According to the 2019 International Studbook, our park is one of eight facilities that have sent breeding pandas to China, and we have the best results among them! The pandas sent to China were included in China's domestic breeding program. Two males and two females participated in breeding, and over 20 cubs were born. 'Yuhin's' offspring also joined breeding programs overseas, and pandas from our park's lineage are now active worldwide.