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Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan could have baby next year

“I believe that with the zoo’s good care of the pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan could become sexually mature in time for mating next year.” — Zhang Hemin, director of China’s Wolong Nature Reserve Administration

Visitors to the Taipei City Zoo may be able to see a baby Tuan Tuan or Yuan Yuan sometime next year, a panda expert from the Wolong Nature Reserve Administration said yesterday.

Zhang Hemin (張和民), director of the Wolong Nature Reserve Administration in China’s Sichuan Province and also known as the “Father of Pandas,” visited the zoo yesterday to check on the pair, and said Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan could conceive a baby panda in the spring.

“I haven’t seen them for a long time, and I believe that with the zoo’s good care of the pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan could become sexually mature in time for mating next year,” he said yesterday during a visit to the zoo.

Chang said captive pandas usually reach sexual maturity at the age of five-and-a-half, and can mate until they are 19 years old.

“Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan are only seven years old now [according to the Chinese calendar]. We selected them because of the high chance that they would mate, and so I don’t think it will be a problem for them to have a cub in Taiwan,” he said.

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were born in 2004.

Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said the zoo separated Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan earlier this month in preparation for their first breeding season. Zhang said it would arouse the two pandas’ sexual instincts, enhance their natural mating ability and improve their reproductive capacity.

Yeh said the zoo would keep close contact with the administration and is hopeful a baby panda could be conceived as soon as February next year and born as soon as May.

Experts say the gestation period for pandas is anywhere from 95 days to 160 days.

The pair were selected from 23 panda cubs early in 2006 by Beijing as a gift to Taiwan.

The two pandas have become one of the main attractions at the zoo since their arrival last year.
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