The Zoo Aquarium of Madrid has welcomed two new specimens of panda bears this Monday.
The offspring are the result of the couple formed by the female
Hua Zui Ba
and the male
Bing Xing
, the famous pandas ceded to Madrid by the Chengdú breeding center (China), it is a record for the city's zoo, since they are It's about the duo's second twin birth, which comes 11 years after the first.
Hua Zui Ba's
pregnancy
has been possible thanks to artificial fertilization, like all three previous pregnancies.
The first contractions of the female
Hua Zui Ba
They began at dawn on Monday, according to the Zoo Aquarium, and the first calf was born at eight thirty in the morning.
For the second, the veterinary team had to wait four hours.
The young, which are born with pink skin, will be totally dependent on their mother for the next four months.
Only then will they be able to start walking on their own and be introduced to the pagoda.
Throughout Monday afternoon, the first veterinary check-up was carried out by the Madrid Zoo team in collaboration with the two technicians from the Chengdu Panda Breeding Base, who moved to Spain to assist in the breeding pandas initial.
In this first check, you can confirm your weight, what your health status is and distinguish between sex.
More information
Protecting the panda's habitat does not save other species in the same territory
The baby panda bear 'Chulina' goes abroad for the first time
The Madrid Zoo did not register the birth of a giant panda for 11 years, after the twins
Po
and
De De
, on September 7, 2010. The birth of these young, highlights the zoo, constitutes a great contribution in the field of conservation of endangered species, as in the case of giant pandas. Since 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has lowered the threat status of this species from "endangered" to "vulnerable", due to the 17% increase in population in the decade prior to 2014. According to data From the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) there are 1,864 pandas in the wild. The last census of the Chinese Government in 2015 has registered an implement of 268 specimens in the last decade, that is, 16.3% more pandas compared to the last census of 2003.
It is extremely difficult for giant pandas to reproduce in captivity due to the lack of sexual appetite of the males.
In addition, female pandas, who reach sexual maturity between five and six and a half years, go into heat for only two to three days a year, so much so that only 10% of couples in captivity manage to mate naturally.
The reproductive rate is one calf every two years, and the cases of twin births are usually verified only in captivity, when assisted fertilization is used.
The pandas of Madrid
The first specimens of this species arrived in Madrid in December 1987, when the Chinese Government gave the Kings a pair of pandas,
Chang-Chang
and
Shao Shao
. The Madrid Zoo then became one of the six parks that, except China, had these animals. In September 1982, the female gave birth to twins, the first case of captive breeding of the species outside of China. However, one of the pups died of pulmonary edema just three days after birth.
The other went down in history as the “most valuable animal born in a zoo”, according to the
Guinness Book of Records
. Chu-Lin, whose name was chosen by the Prince and the Infantas, caused a flood of spectators in the zoo, and after his birth all the records of visits to the Madrid Zoo were broken. On April 29, 1996, the star of the park died at the age of 13 of an inflammation in the prostate, leaving the institution without panda bears.
Until 2007, when
Bing Xing
and
Hua Zui Ba
arrived in Spain
, another gift from the Chinese Government to the Kings. Since then, the couple has been a success: in September 2010
Po
and
De De
were born
, in the second birth of panda in captivity in Madrid, thanks to a pregnancy by artificial insemination;
Xing Bao was
born in 2013
, and she stayed in the zoo only until she was 4 years old, when she was transferred to the Chengdu Nature Reserve (China), and in 2016
Chulina
, the fourth child of the couple. This Monday, 11 years later,
Hua Zui Ba
broke another record, managing to carry out the second double birth at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium.
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