Even though I’m a total cat person, (there’s nothing cooler than a stealthy jungle feline! Jaguars, anyone?!) I must say, there’s something remarkable about pandas. For me, they’re just so exotic. I’ve never been up close and personal to one, and I only know of them through movies like “Kung ** Panda,” cartoons and other pop culture references, but they look cute and cuddly and appear to be play**l and bouncy. I love how slow-moving they are, eating with intentional movement, their bodies lumbering along never at all going over the speed limit of crawling! They’re just so interesting to watch and learn about.
While I would call them adorable, they are still wild animals and have a duality to them. They can be caring and nurturing, however, they still have instincts and peculiar behavior researchers and caretakers are trying to unravel.
Here’s a **n fact: it’s not strange for pandas to produce twins. In fact, half of all panda births are twins. That being said, however, both twins don’t usually survive because panda mothers typically abandon one of them. While the exact reason isn’t proven, it’s not because of spite. It’s supposed that the panda mother doesn’t have enough milk or the energy to take care of her two little ones. The abandoning of one cub happens almost every time.
In this video, panda mother Lee Lee just gave birth to twins, and because of an experiential plan hatched by the zookeepers, Lee Lee is totally unaware that she’s got two brand new twin cubs! The idea is, that while Lee Lee is spending time and nursing one baby, the other is fed formula and kept in an incubator. Both babies get face time with mom but they’re also both kept alive! The keepers are able to take a cub away by distracting Lee Lee with honey water. Not to worry, though! The babies are swapped about 10 times a day so Lee Lee is almost always with a cub. And, even more important, this twin-swapping technique used on captive pandas is extremely effective, reaching the possibility of a 100% success rate if everything keeps going well. While it’s not clear if mom knows what’s going on behind the scenes, this clever trick seems to be working. What a smart way to keep both babies!
Click below to watch this technique save panda babies and work miracles, as narrated by David Attenborough.
