Hua Mei was the happy result of artificial insemination.
Have you ever been to a San Diego Zoo Safari Park and had the Africa Tram driver warn parents of little ones that it is that time of year when the animals are breeding and their kids might have some questions about what they saw after the ride? This usually gets adults chuckling, and maybe even leads to a few “birds-and-the-bees conversations.” Well, imagine your job is to help in the reproduction of endangered species and that every person you meet eventually asks, “So, what you do for a living?” As a laboratory researcher in the Reproductive Physiology Division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, I’ve learned to say, “Think of us as a fertility clinic for animals.” Here are a few examples I use to explain this idea:
Artificial insemination
One of our lab’s greatest achievements was the birth of Hua Mei, the first panda cub to be born at the San Diego Zoo. While her birth was due to a large-scale collaboration of many people from all over the Zoo, including scientists, curators, veterinarians, and keepers, our greatest contribution was the insemination. It became clear that male panda Shi Shi was not going to naturally breed female Bai Yun and that human intervention would be necessary. Barbara Durrant, the director of our division, was able to collect semen from Shi Shi and use it to artificially inseminate Bai Yun, resulting in the birth of Hua Mei.
Sun bear Danum arrived with the help of estrous cycle monitoring.
Estrous cycle monitoring
Often when women are trying to conceive, doctors monitor their cycle using techniques to predict when ovulation will occur. Many of these techniques are not feasible to apply to our collection animals because they would require sedation. Instead, in addition to urine and fecal hormone monitoring, we collect vaginal cells and monitor changes using a modified Papanicolau stain and some good, old-fashioned microscopy work. The cells in many mammalian species have been found to change in color and shape as estrus progresses. Unlike the Pap smear women are familiar with, which checks for cervical cancer, we monitor the changes in vaginal cells, which requires a far less invasive method of collection. These cells can be obtained with operant conditioning or positive reinforcement training of the animal. It’s amazing what a sun bear will do for some honey water!
An example of a success achieved using this method is the birth of our first Bornean sun bear cub: Danum. A shift in vaginal cells from one dominant color to another, combined with behavioral observations by keepers and scientists, allowed us to pinpoint the right time to introduce the normally solitary male and female to each other with a decreased risk of aggression and increased chance of breeding.
In-vitro maturation (IVM), in-vitro fertilization (IVF), embryo development (ED)
Many of us remember the term “test tube babies.” Today, IVM, IVF, and ED techniques are being employed all around the world, enabling couples to have children despite a variety of fertility issues. Often a human female is given hormones to produce many oocytes (eggs) that are retrieved from her ovaries using ultrasound-guided aspiration. These oocytes are put into a medium specifically designed to help the oocyte mature (IVM) in preparation for fertilization. Sperm is then introduced to the egg in a petri dish (IVF) or by a procedure called intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
The oocyte is then put back into the medium designed to promote embryonic growth in an incubator. That embryo is then implanted inside the female or frozen for future use. In our lab we are using these same techniques to try to produce embryos from endangered species. Our challenge is that we work with a variety of different species, all with their own special needs, and many of the oocytes we work with are from ovaries of animals that have passed away, leaving us one step behind in the maturation process. We have used these procedures on animals as common as cats and rabbits to animals as endangered as rhinos and polar bears.
It is no secret that the best part of this job for me is getting to see the fruits of my labor. I may be taking a petri dish that once contained oocytes and sperm out of the incubator and seeing a growing embryo, or standing in front of an exhibit watching an adorable sun bear cub climb up a tree stump, but the feeling of helping to create life is indescribable. My friends like to tell people I make babies. Well, if by babies they mean cubs, kittens, and pups, then I am happy to agree. It may not be the easiest job to explain to people, but I almost always get a response like, “That is so cool.” It is, and I finally found a way to tell people just how cool it is.
Nicole Ravida is a research coordinator for the Reproductive Physiology Division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Read her previous post, Creating a Sperm Atlas.
I, for one, appreciate all the hard work and dedication that goes into preserving so many endangered species. In some cases, it’s the only way that future generations will get to see and enjoy some of these special animals. Let’s just call you the fairy Godmother!
A happy keeper has many children. We have had a few here.Actually
just one! Thank you Gao Gao for your loving help.And all the other papas that keep the zoo children available for the “hoomans” as Yun Zi would say.
Speakinf of- Today Bai Yun gave her baby a piece of boo. Strripped but not fancy and pretty long so he wont hve to move very far for his treat. what a laugh~ Now I have seen just about everything .Bai keeping the baby happy alone.Nothing like a piece of boo to enjoy a little lunch.And munch!
Thank you helping endangered species reproduce! I’m sure you make those mama animals happy too. As a human who had to consult with reproductive endocrinologists, thank you for tackling the sensitive subjects for the animals.
This really is cool. You have an important role in slowing down the extinction of many of nature’s beautiful creations.
Thank you.
Thank goodness for the scientists and vets, etal who work to help these important endangered species survive for a little while longer. The world should be singing your praises. Thank you!
Bai Yun just took Gao Junior out for another road trip! I wonder if they’ll stay outside the den all night or come back after a few minutes. Anyway, I sense that the “den phase” of the cub’s babyhood is coming to a rapid end and his world will be opening up to more rooms and , finally, the outside!
What an amazing job you do. Thank you. Your update was well written and easily understood even by we “hoomans.” Thank you again.
I have been watching for blogs on the polar bears webcam to see if there are any new cubs expected. I love all the zoo cams and keeping up with what is happening at the zoo. Thanks to all that keeps us updated.
I think what you do is so wonderful. What is baby boy doing when Bai takes him out of the nest? It seems they are gone so long sometimes.
Amazing, if I had it all to do again I would love to work with animals like these.
I am getting very angry at the fact that I have advise you on seeing mice around the baby Panda they walk over the baby and you can see were they hide ,etc.
This is grosses to watch and public should become aware and maybe better care
would be given.
Moderator’s note: The Panda Team assures us that there is no evidence of mice. Instead, there are bugs attracted to the camera lens, which magnifies them on the Panda Cam viewing screen. Please don’t worry.
Can you see, Mama Bai Yun allowing a mouse in Her Den near Her Baby? I can’t.
Thank you for your attention and putting my mind at ease. I do love animals so much and I am so proud of all the care and help you offer to all endangered species.
I honestly did not know what I was seeing when I first wrote several weeks ago ;so it was a surprise when I got the reply that they were having trouble getting rid of the mouse.
I quess it could have been a joke that I toke to seriously. But it is just a baby.
thanks
LLY
Yodis, when I first noticed, what to me looked like a GIANT Cockroache, I, too, was very concerned. It was night time so I had sometime before anybody would be reading what I had to post. After watching for a while I saw that it was an optical illusion…a bug very near the camera, not on the Baby or Bai at all. One of our creative writers gave us a story about the “Fairie Moth”, and how she watches over the cub while Bai is sleelping. I slept much better after that~and I hope you will sleep better too. The bugs you see are normal sized and normal for this part of the country, these months. Sometimes it might feel like you have been forgotten, when all that happenedd was a change in subject on the blog, or a new one going up. Everybody want you to be at ease, or nobody would install Web Cams. They are there to let us enjoy the animals, not to scare the pants of the readers.
Actually if a mouse tried to get near the Chubbie Cubbie Bai Yun would show us Panda Hunting techniques. I hope this, and further viewing helps, but anyone out here will be handy if you need us. Love Grammmie
Well if that doesn’t beat all~~~Chubbers was by himself, having a nice snooze when I saw Bai come in to take him out dancing. She was not gone long before coming bck with Bamboo, but no Cubbie~~~although she is acting like she is cleaning the den~~he is usually there when she does that. At first I thought she had hidden him under her belly but now I see her with her feetsies (back ones) up, chewing on Bamboo she brought in. Do you suppose she let her two youngest sons go on a nightime adventure while the Nanny keepers were not looking??? This should be interesting when she realizes that she left him somewhere…fingers on the cam button for that look. She must have known exactly where he was all of the time….she just reached out through he den door to retrive him. Maybe he will eat now dear Bai….that is if he ever really wakes up.
Grammie, your post cracked me up. You’re quite the fan, aren’t you? With an imagination!
I only caught that from the truly creative folks who give personalities and voices to our Pandas. Their interviews ans stories are phenominal.
Bai did the same thing last week. She left Gao Junior just outside the door of the den while she cleaned (i.e. created a boo tornado) then pulled him back inside for a nursing session followed by a thorough spin and rinse cycle. She would never let her baby get so far out of her sight or smell that she wasn’t aware of his location at all times. Bai is a responsible mom! Just watch her when Gao Junior is big enough to experience the outdoors. Even though it might look like she could care less what he might be doing, she has eyes in the back of her head. She’ll know exactly what he’s up to and will act accordingly if she feels he’s doing something wrong.
Hi Grammie,
i saw this, too… Mommy with Bamboo, Mommy fluffing up the den, more bamboo, but no cubbie… then just like a drive thru window Mommy reached through the opening and got her baby!
If he ever wakes up…boy, you’ve got that right! He’s normally so tired he appears drugged ( which of course I know he isn’t). Maybe that’s nature’s way of protecting him when he’s helpless? I can’t wait until he wakes up too, maybe when he gets outside he’s more awake? It won’t be long until he’s walking a lot anyway, that should wake him up!
Between us we have Bai peggged~don’t we????
Deb~she has what my daughter likes to call “Mother Eyes”~seeing through walls, in the dark and though the back of her head. They go along with “Mother Ears”.
Thank you for giving nature a boost and for your sensitivity fielding the tough questions.
You have a very rewarding job! I guess you are considered an expert in “birthin’ babies”….
In the 1960′s there were few options for women who were having trouble conceiving. Now that I am age 71 I wonder which of the modern procedures would have help me as a human wanting a child. I am happy for the animals and people who have benefited from what has been learned and developed, and you, Nichole, are to be congratulated for your determined work in this area.
Thanks so much for an interesting and informative post. It certainly must never get boring!
That is sooo cool!
It is a cool job! Thanks for all you do….
What an absolutely funny beautiful story, you go girl, keep inseminating our lovely friends who can’t do it on their own, lol
I loved reading your post. I am a 3x surrogate mother so I can appreciate the work you do in the reproductive field. By the way, I absolutely love the panda cam!!!
We are very blessed that there was human intervention and innovation so that Shi Shi could father (and Bai Yun give birth to) the 1st panda cub in the USA to survive to adulthood. Beloved Hua Mei’s birth was quite the achievement, one of many that the SDZ should be extremely proud of. Bravo!
Here’s some footage of cubbie #6 from yesterday. The titles are fairly self-explanatory, but the ending of the 2nd one even surprised me when I saw it!
2012-10-02 Cubbie Steps and Cubbie Cuddles
http://youtu.be/07N6QNlYU2g
2012-10-02 Cubbie #6, Now you see him, Now you don’t!
http://youtu.be/BNKKN5V08yM
Love that 2nd video especially, thank you for that. I too was surprised by the ending. It looks to me like mama Bai and Cubbie were sleeping when Bai accidentally moved Cubbie to the doorway in her sleep with her paw and Cubbie went for it out the door. It looked effortless! Then mom of course corrected things!
No stopping a determined cubby; He’s on the move!
Yes, indeed …. what a necessary and wonderful job!
Boy … Bai’s little boy is such a handful nowadays … he wants UP and OUT!!
LOL
Can you put a microphone in the Panda area with the camera?
It seems I could imagine one for you~if that helps at all…love grammmie
Thanks Nicole for this truly informative blog. From the unfertilized egg to a bouncing baby makes your job remarkable and also so fulfilling. I imagine there are a lot of misses, so when you do get a baby born and survive you feel like one of their family. Your whole department should take a well deserved bow.
What the heck, Go On Vacation~~~~there are lots of us Aunties and Unkas who would come on down and stay 24/7 with the pandas and make sure they do not have withdrawls from not enough hugging.
As a mother of five children , i can relate to the fascination of reproduction and the excitement to see it grow. YOU DO HAVE THE COOLEST JOB IN THE WORLD!
Thank you for the detailed post! But what exactly is “operant conditioning”?
Moderator’s note: The blog Wild CSI: Pandas has a great description of operant conditioning.
Dixie mom…Thank you for the videos!! The second video at the end was great. LOL. I keep saying I think this fellow is going to be a very fun cub with more energy than a barrel of monkeys. He looks large until mommy picks him up in her mouth, he is still little.
Perhaps he will be one of those Huge Hulking Guys they call “Tiny”???
Poor baby has been alone for a long time now
Where is Bai? Cubbie needs to eat, its been too long. Got home at 6pm no momma with baby and its 51/2 hrs later and still no Bai. I’m worried.
Good thing he has such big Fat reserves as he does. He will be fine and Bai is only a few feet away and will return in plenty of time. It may seem like forever, but she will not let harm come to him. She is more fortuneate than her wild sisters~~~she does not have to go far for food, and there is more than she ever needs on hand. Bamboo s a poor diet to have to feed a little one from, and she has extra help from the Nanny Keepers, so they are both safe. In the meantime he gets lots of lung excercise, and it must take some energy to wave his 4 paws around, there are benefits for all. I realy understand….when Yun Zi was tiny I wanted a dirct line to Bai to remind her that she had duties…..but they both came through with flying colors~of Black and White.
When I was in high school, there were turkey farms in the area. One of the jobs there was basically the same thing with turkeys. I went to school with someone who did this, boy was he teased. High school kids can be mean, but it was funny. This was in the midwest.
We have spent several hours each evening enjoying every peaceful moment your Panda Cam has brought us. We also have watched Yun Za grow from his first day of life.
Tonight we have not seen Bai and have witnessed baby panda alone and at times struggling and verbalizing. I realize the time for Mama to be in the den with baby is less each day, but can you tell me if she has made any appearance at all tonight. How long has she stayed outside the den the past day or two? How does she determine when she needs to go back to the den?
I would think she would go to the cub for relief when her milk is backing up….I sure would.
Wow, Nicole! It really is “all happening at the zoo,” isn’t it?
I can’t say I’m wild about all the lyrics regarding the intelligence of some animals, but this song was written about trips to the Bronx Zoo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKLBne1CoI
About estrus cycles…. I can track some of this phenomenon in humans via genealogy research and birth patterns through 400 years of records collected over 50 years, and I know it happens with some animals (lions and langurs – see The Langurs of Abu by Sarah Blaffer-Hrdy – are two I can think of off the top of my head – and I think I remember seeing this in a chimpanzee group on a Nature show once, too?); the new dominant male takes over, kills the youngest infants sired by the previous male, the females go into estrus right away and become pregnant with the new dominant male’s offspring), but I was wondering if pandas would go into estrus right after losing a cub (like with Mei Xiang in DC recently)?
The most “recent” incidents I can cite as a human example was with my own maternal grandmother (she was a midwife and gave birth to 13 children of her own, and she even attended the delivery of some of her older grandchildren born before me). I knew about the youngest who died at three days old, but until a birth index was put online, I didn’t know what happened between the marriage date and my eldest paternal aunt’s birth, but the timeline is now all complete. I’ve noticed that there will be a baby born between 9-12 months after the marriage date if the bride was not already pregnant. My grandmother’s first four pregnancies ended in stillbirths, or babies only living a few hours, days, and a couple of months. In 1906 she had a stillborn boy on 30 Jan…, and my eldest aunt to live to adulthood was born Dec. 30, 1906. Yes, two babies in one year, eleven months apart (and I have the documents to prove the births).
Through 400 years of both maternal and paternal records in direct lines and side lineages, it’s a consistent pattern where if a baby dies, the woman almost always gets pregnant by two or three months after the last infant died or was stillborn. I can time the normal birth spacing down to every 22-24 months on average most of the time. Any shorter or longer period of time, I go looking for evidence of a stillbirth (in three countries where good records were kept, miscarriages were not recorded, but stillbirths were).
There was even a set of male triplets in a side lineage, the first one born 30 Sept 1751; one boy first, then two days later, 2 Oct 1751, two more; all died, but the birth/baptism records are there, that they are triplets who were baptized at home is duly noted, and because they lived long enough to draw breath for a while (few minutes, hours) and be baptized, they were all given names in the record book, and even the birth order is listed. The mother had a little resting time between births for a change, about three+ years before she got pregnant again (or there’s one or two unrecorded miscarriages in there, perhaps), but she then went on to have two more children who lived to adulthood (total of 9 births that I found). Twins, oddly enough, are a fairly common occurrence, but that’s the only set of triplets in my database. (I figure maybe the first one had his own water sac, and the other two were probably identical twins in another sac, technically. Maybe. Or, she might have had that phenomenon I read about recently of two uteruses since the single birth and the double birth were two days apart. I just thought it odd to have documented “triplets” – or a set of identical twins plus a single brother.)
In any case, since – in some instances – humans females and certain other female animals (at least mammals in these cases) can/do get pregnant within a very short time after losing an infant…, does that also happen with pandas? I know they can delay a pregnancy/birth, but that doesn’t cover losing an infant…, and whether or not she has an estrus cycle right after that loss or not.
Sorry for the odd question, but I don’t know the answer…, and since you have a fascinating job where knowing about estrus cycles and when they happen are part of your knowledge base…, perhaps you know the answer, or could point me in the direction of where an answer might be found.
Next time you have an interesting case of IVM, IVF (or the like), let us know so we can be vicarious midwives. I’ve given birth, cut umbilical cords on two human babies, and was the attendant midwife (catwife?) for a lovely little feline who had three litters and would wait for me to be with her when she had her kittens (long stories; she was adorable), but what you’re doing is a related field I think is just fascinating. [I'm old, so this isn't a "sensitive subject," but a scientific field that is extraordinarily interesting to my way of thinking.]
Thanks bunches!
Nonny
Wow Nonny, that is quite interesting. I guess you picked the correct expert to ask. Lel me know what you find out. The only birth I midwifed at was my Irish setter when the kids were teens. My daughter and she were very close, but the only one who did not join the “Team”. We switched off jobs between pups so we all were involved with everything, including my son, and the neighbor accross the street washed the sheets as needed for swapping between pups. The four of us had a wonderful dayy,an bythe nith an last pup she finally figured out what she was to do. Midwifing Pandas would be a dream job. Getting to hold that precious little life if only for a moment woud transform us for years.
Hi Nonny,
Thank you for your interesting question. Giant pandas (like other bears) are not known to experience postpartum estrus or to recycle soon after losing a cub. Because giant pandas are seasonal breeders, females that lose a cub normally do not recycle until the next spring. There is one documented report of a female giant panda in Japan being naturally bred in the spring but not giving birth that fall. She did come back into estrus in September and was artificially inseminated. She gave birth to twins in December and raised them both. A weak fall estrus is occasionally reported in giant pandas, but it is rarely accompanied by breeding and even less rarely associated with conception. We are working in collaboration with other U.S. zoos to develop an early pregnancy test for giant pandas. One advantage of knowing early in the breeding season if a female is not pregnant would be the possibility of treating her with hormones to encourage her to cycle again that spring rather than waiting a year for her to come into estrus again.
Barbara Durrant is head of the Zoo’s Reproductive Physiology Department.
Wow, that answer boggles the mind. E. P. T. for Pandas~~what a concept. It took time to develop things for humans (where there were many more to test and work with), I imagine it will take a great deal of time to find the way to Panda detection, but a worthy experiment. Please be sure to let us know how things are progressing in the future~I think many will be interested.
Seasonal breeders…. That explains a lot for the difference between seasonal vs other types of breeders (including humans).
I appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions! Glad you’re there to help the pandas and other animals with reproducing.
I’m so grateful to you and other zoo people for helping endangered and threatened species, not only with reproduction problems, but with habitat and general care and feeding. It seems to me (looking in from the outside) that everyone’s job is so very important to help our animal friends.
Best Wishes,
Nonny (animal lover!)
I just checked on the latest Oct. 3, 2012 from Pandas Live On~~There is a nice article about the wild release program, including the young Panda that will be releaed on Oct. 12, 2012. To reach it simply type pandasliveon into an address bar and it should take you right there. For the SAZoo blog gang, no it is not one of Bi Yun an Gao Gao grandkids.
Wondering if it is exam day for our cubbie????
Moderator’s note: Yes, an exam is scheduled for this morning.
Looks like we are viewing Yunzi at the moment. Perhaps, the new baby is having his exam. We saw a brief glimpse of Yunnie but then he went off into the other side eating his bamboo and the camera does not seem to have followed him there. Sure wish the camera can zoom on him right now. We miss the little Prince!
Moderator’s note: I can see him sleeping up on a branch right now.
Lets see, Moderator….your job is to try to keep us in line, coordinate the blog and commens, and watch Yunior out of your “working” window??? Do I have the facts right??? How much do they compensate you for adoring the adorables???? Well that is really none of our business…but I bet when you said you could see Yun Zi in a tree outsde your wndow that the envy rating went through the roof….you lucky lady.
Moderator’s note: I have to confess that I meant I could see him on the Panda Cam resting on the branch. My desk is not at the Giant Panda Research Station at all, as I moderate all blogs, not just panda posts.
Hey we give great points here for creativity~~don’t we??? The way I imagined your working space might be something to write into your next contract. Just how do you guys feel about some of the fantasies we generate here?? Do the NannyKeepers get a giggle from them? I remember before dropping out for sickness (if I am remembering correctly) that the Project Bamboo stuff got to China after the young Pandas (the whole crew except for Yun Zi) travelled there and had the Chinese in stitches. Hope you have a Panda filled day.
Question: Who is Danum’s (sunbear) parents? I’m just curious because we have a male who came from SDZ… I wasn’t sure how old the picture is. Thank you! Dianna
Danum’s father is Ralph/Dibu, who is now housed at the Columbus Zoo.
Ralph/Dibu is also the father of Palu and Pagi, the twins. Palu is now in Seattle and Pagi is at the Oakland Zoo.
Can’t wait to hear, Dianna, if Dibu is a father again at your zoo!!
What an informative post, Nicole. You should be very proud of what you do. And this was a great way of explaining it!!