More than half of all panda births results in twins. But it’s very rare for both twins to survive.
That’s because panda moms almost always abandon one of their cubs.
While this seems harsh, it’s actually a matter of survival. Panda moms don’t think that they’ll have sufficient milk or energy to care for both babies.
So, they opt to care for just the one that they know they can handle.
But when pandas are in captivity, they have the resources they need to care for both babies.
One zoo came up with a clever way to trick a mama panda into caring for both of her babies.
They decided that they would switch the babies throughout the day so that the mom believes she is only caring for the one cub.
It starts the moment the panda gives birth.
One of the cubs is taken away. Mom panda, Lee Lee, starts to feed that baby and care for it.
Then Lee Lee’s handlers pull the old switcheroo.
They will distract Lee Lee with a bowl of honey in water and try to pull her baby away.
She is, however, reluctant to give her baby up. But eventually, she becomes distracted enough.
They wrap the baby up in a towel and take it to the incubator.
They return with the baby’s twin.
They place the twin in the enclosure with its mom.
Mom has no idea that it’s a different baby.
She just scoops her cub up and begins to cuddle and groom it.
When the twin is not with mommy they are fed formula but when they twin is returned to their mom they drink their mother’s milk.
This method allows the mother to feed both babies. The zoo’s staff ends up switching the babies out up to 10 times a day.
The mother has a baby with her almost all times of the day.
This method allows a 100 percent survival rate in newborn captive panda cubs. Thankfully pandas are no longer endangered and are considered to be a vulnerable species thanks to programs likes this.
But their habitats are still endangered.
“Everyone is enormously excited about baby pandas because they are undeniably attractive,” said Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University according to National Geographic. “So by having pandas in zoos it really engages people—it really is about getting people to care, and that’s important.”
You can see Lee Lee and her zookeepers switch her babies in the video below.
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