Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian National Zoo News 2013

Kandula's actually hitting sexual maturity just about now.
It's great to hear that Smithsonian will be receiving more elephants, and it's amazing that in April the zoo had 3 elephants, and by next year's April there will be 7!
 
The question of breeding may be unnecessary for the next 2-4 years, as Maharani is in the early stages of pregnancy. Conceived earlier this year following her premature stillbirth.
 
If Maharani is pregnant hopefully it will end better than the first three time. First she had a female named Keemaya who she rejected in 2004. Keemaya died less than a month later. In 2008 she had a second female named Malti who I think was initially rejected but later accepted again. Malti is her longest lived calf. She died of Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes virus at 14 months. And last falls premature stillborn calf was a male who died days or weeks before his birth.
 
I just found a photo on the Calgary Zoos facebook page of Shanthi, Bozie, Kamala and Swarna as babies at the orphanage. Its cool to see all of them together as babies.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there now four Giant Panda cubs in the U.S. (not all born this year)? One at San Diego, two at Atlanta, and now one at Smithsonian?

~Thylo:cool:
 
I believe your correct. They only other option for a cub in the US is Memphis and I dont think they have ever been successful. It would be cool it this was the year Memphis got a cub. Then all the US zoos with pandas would have cubs. Hopefully next year all these little American pandas will get a Canadian cousin from Toronto's pair, Da Mao and Er Shun.
 
I am curious if the different semen collected produced two different cubs. In other words, the two cubs had different fathers. Maybe the later insemination was from one of the last procedures, but never fully developed. I wonder, But I am not sure if they can, perform a DNA test on the deceased one to determine its father.

I heard the separation between twin pandas is only by a few hours. Is this one of the first recorded births where there was more than a 24 hour gap?
 
blospz said:
I am curious if the different semen collected produced two different cubs. In other words, the two cubs had different fathers.
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Its possible. In dogs, puppies in one litter can have different fathers, if there was more than one mating.

I would have thought DNA from the dead,malformed cub could easily be obtained to ascertain its father also.

(Similar pandemonium at Edinburgh Zoo in the UK currently as their female may be about to give birth).
 
It would be interesting if the cubs had different fathers. Gao Gao has 5 healthy surviving cubs to his credit and only failed to get Bai Yun pregnant once. Tian Tian has a more spotty record with just one healthy survivng cub, another cub with lung issues and years of failing to produce any cubs. Maybe all this time the problem hasnt been Mei failing to get pregant. Maybe theres something wrong with the combination of the two or Tian is producing abnormal cubs. I have no idea but if Gao Gao is the father of the first cub and its healthy and thriving and Tian Tian is the father of the second cub it might be something worth investigating, especially if this is the first time Gao Gaos semen has been used.
 
I see they tried to take the cub away for another exam today, but she wouldn't let them. I'm not sure why they feel the need to do it again, surely once was enough? I hope they've given up the idea now. Attempts like that can stress the mother to the extent she could hold the cub too tight as a result and suffocate it. I hope they're aware of that.
 
Pertinax said:
I see they tried to take the cub away for another exam today, but she wouldn't let them. I'm not sure why they feel the need to do it again, surely once was enough? I hope they've given up the idea now. Attempts like that can stress the mother to the extent she could hold the cub too tight as a result and suffocate it. I hope they're aware of that.
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They probably are. I'm sure they just wanted to check up on the cub again since they've only ever had one cub survive to adult-hood.

~Thylo:cool:
 
TZFan said:
Maybe theres something wrong with the combination of the two or Tian is producing abnormal cubs. I have no idea but if Gao Gao is the father of the first cub and its healthy and thriving and Tian Tian is the father of the second cub it might be something worth investigating, especially if this is the first time Gao Gaos semen has been used.
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This female certainly has an interesting breeding history, with the one successful birth followed by several years with no pregnancy (or at least birth) to the extent they had written her off, then the non-surviving (six-day) young one last year, and now this twin birth with one viable cub.

As you said, if Gao Gao proves to be father of the live cub, and his semen wasn't used in previous years, it might point toward something on the male side. If its TianTian however, then that theory is blown apart.
 
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