Los pandas alcanzan su madurez sexual entre los cinco y los siete aos de edad.

La poca de reproduccin se desarrolla durante la primavera (de mediados marzo a mediados de mayo). Durante esta poca de dos a cinco machos pueden competir por una hembra frtil. Cuando un macho se destaca sobre el resto obtiene el derecho a copular con la hembra. El tiempo de cpula es corto y va de los 30 segundos a los 5 minutos, pero el macho puede montar a la hembra varias veces para asegurar el xito de la fecundacin. Suelen ser ruidosas, acompaadas por gemidos y alaridos. La gestacin del embrin (que puede pesar entre 90 y 130 g, lo que representa 1/900 parte del peso de la madre) dura, en promedio, 135 das. Normalmente nacen una o dos cras, si se diera el segundo caso, la madre optar por continuar la crianza de slo una de ellas (la que note con mayores probabilidades de sobrevivir). La cra rechazada es abandonada y muere. Este comportamiento, observado en varias especies, se da cuando le es imposible a la madre cuidar de varias cras, por lo que elige a la ms apta (an no se conoce cmo realiza la madre esta seleccin, pero est siendo estudiado por los cientficos). Al nacer la cra es ciega y su piel tiene una coloracin rosada (producto de una reaccin qumica entre la piel del recin nacido y la saliva de su madre), un mes despus del nacimiento el panda adquirir su tradicional pigmentacin. La madre amamantar a su cra entre 6 y 14 veces por da por un lapso de 30 minutos cada vez. Solamente por tres o cuatro horas abandonar a su cra para procurarse alimento, durante este tiempo la cra queda indefensa. Aunque la cra de panda sea capaz de ingerir pequeas cantidades de bamb desde los seis meses el destetese produce al ao de vida. Por otra parte la cra comienza a andar (torpemente) a partir de los 75 das, desde entonces la madre lo estimular jugando y luchando con ella. La cra vivir con su madre (ya que el padre no toma parte de la crianza) hasta los dos aos de vida. El intervalo entre una camada de cras y otra puede durar ms de dos aos. En cautiverio la cra de pandas se vuelve muy dificultosa: solamente el 10% logra aparearse naturalmente y apenas el 30% de las hembras quedan preadas. Adems el 60% de los pandas cautivos pierde totalmente su deseo sexual. Algunos cientficos (sobre todo en China y Tailandia) intentan reducir este problema a partir de vdeos de pandas copulando. Los cientficos no creen que aprenden comportamientos copulativos, sino, que los sonidos asociados estimulan a los pandas que los escuchan. La expectativa de vida de un panda es de unos 12 aos. En 2005, Basi, una panda hembra china, cumpli 25 aos de edad (que equivalen a 100 aos humanos), ese mismo ao el panda criado en cautiverio ms viejo del mundo, una hembra llamada Meimei, muri a los 36 (equivalentes a 144 aos humanos), en el jardn zoolgico de la ciudad de Guilin.

Initially, the primary method of breeding giant pandas in captivity was by artificial insemination, [70] as they seemed to lose their interest in mating once they were captured. This led some [71] scientists to try extreme methods, such as showing them videos of giant pandas mating and [72] giving the malesViagra. Only recently have researchers started having success with captive breeding programs, and they have now determined giant pandas have comparable breeding to some populations of theAmerican black bear, a thriving bear family. The current reproductive [12][24] rate is considered one young every two years. The giant panda produces the smallest [73] baby of any placental mammal. Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be [74] reproductive until age 20. The mating season is between March and May, when a female [75] goes into estrus, which lasts for two or three days and only occurs once a year. When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts her from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from 30 seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount her repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization. The gestation period ranges from 95 to [75] 160 days. If twins are born, usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker will die. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for [76] two cubs, since she does not store fat. The father has no part in helping raise the cub. When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless, weighing only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 [45] to 4.6 ounces), or about 1/800th of the mother's weight. It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A slight pink color may appear on cub's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with [45] age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and [78] wrestling with them. The cubs can eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (100 pounds) at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years. In July 2009, Chinese scientists confirmed the birth of the first cub to be successfully conceived [79] through artificial insemination using frozen sperm. The cub was born at 07:41 on 23 July that [79][80][81] year in Sichuan as the third cub of You You, an 11-year-old. The technique for freezing the sperm in liquid nitrogen was first developed in 1980 and the first birth was hailed as a solution to the problem of lessening giant panda semen availability, which had led to [81][82] inbreeding. Panda semen, which can be frozen for decades, could be shared between [79][80] different zoos to save the species. It is expected that zoos in destinations such as San Diego in the United States and Mexico City will now be able to provide their own semen to [82] inseminate more giant pandas. Attempts have also been made to reproduce giant pandas by interspecific pregnancy by implanting cloned panda embryos into the uterus of an animal of another species. This has [83] resulted in panda fetuses, but no live births.
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