[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/is-breeding-giant-pandas-in-captivity-enough-to-save-their-species\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/is-breeding-giant-pandas-in-captivity-enough-to-save-their-species\/","headline":"Is Breeding Giant Pandas in Captivity Enough to Save Their Species?","name":"Is Breeding Giant Pandas in Captivity Enough to Save Their Species?","description":"After seven long years of waiting with anticipation, Wildlife Reserves Singapore\u2019s (WRS) giant panda Jia Jia finally gave birth to her first cub on the morning of August 14. The proud father is Kai Kai. Both pandas arrived in Singapore from China in 2012, under a 10-year loan from China. But they only mated in […]","datePublished":"2021-09-01","dateModified":"2022-04-14","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/#Person","name":"Rachel Teng","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1280-X-626-px-2.png","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1280-X-626-px-2.png","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/is-breeding-giant-pandas-in-captivity-enough-to-save-their-species\/","about":["Asia","Community","Environment","Local","Singapore"],"wordCount":1267,"keywords":["breeding","china","conservation","funding","giant panda","jia jia","kai kai","panda","panda cub","river safari","Singapore zoo","Wildlife reserves singapore","zoo"],"articleBody":"After seven long years of waiting with anticipation, Wildlife Reserves Singapore\u2019s (WRS) giant panda Jia Jia finally gave birth to her first cub on the morning of August 14.The proud father is Kai Kai.Both pandas arrived in Singapore from China in 2012, under a 10-year loan from China. But they only mated in 2015, when Jia Jia first started her estrus cycle \u2014 the equivalent of the human menstrual cycle.Female giant pandas have only one reproductive cycle a year and are usually only receptive to mating for about two to three of those days, of which the female giant panda is fertile only for 36 to 48 hours.\u00a0The feat that River Safari\u2019s animal care team has achieved is, therefore, a huge cause for celebration. \u201cOutside of China, giant panda breeding is quite sporadic. Some countries have yet to achieve successful breeding despite attempting for many years,\u201d says Dr Cheng Wen-Haur, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.\u00a0\u201cOver the years, our animal care team has devised and refined various regimens and techniques that built up to the success this year, and we are glad to have been able to achieve this significant milestone.\u201dhttps:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/English-soundbites-from-Dr-Cheng-Wen-Haur-Deputy-Chief-Executive-Officer-Wildlife-Reserves-Singapore.-Video-courtesy-of-Wildlife-Reserves-Singapore.mp4Despite being artificially inseminated, Jia Jia has turned out to be an excellent first-time mother. (Video courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore)The case against saving giant pandas\u00a0Despite this great news, there has been much contention over the viability of saving the species, even among experts.\u00a0Some conservationists question the rationale of dedicating a disproportionate amount of conservation to highly loveable animals like giant pandas, orangutans, tigers or elephants \u2014 what we term charismatic megafauna \u2014\u00a0instead of directing funding to where it is most urgently needed.\u00a0\u201cThe argument over charismatic megafauna is a dispute among conservationists themselves, because funding for conservation is limited. Lots of organisations that are trying to garner funding are in a catfight because there\u2019s just not enough cat food going around,\u201d says Dr Michael David Gumert, an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University.\u00a0Apart from the pandas\u2019 slow reproduction rates, these carnivores-turned-herbivores have notoriously specialised bamboo diets, a rapidly shrinking habitat in the wild due to an increasingly urbanised world.\u00a0Recent studies have also shown that giant panda conservation is failing to revive the wider ecosystem, and that other animal populations have dwindled where giant pandas thrive.\u00a0\u00a0Rehabilitation programmes to reintroduce giant pandas back into the wild have yet to be wildly successful, with captive-bred populations never fully socially acclimatising with their wild counterparts”, says Dr Gumert. There are possibly about 1,800 giant pandas still roaming the mountainous forests of central China, and this means that individual pandas like Jia Jia, Kai Kai, and their newborn cub, are likely to remain in captivity for the rest of their lives.Living mainly in bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China, they are excellent tree climbers despite their bulk. (Photo courtesy of WWF)Still, a flagship for conservation\u00a0These systematic flaws in the delegation of conservation funds have been gradually addressed over the past few decades. \u201cThere has been a debate of whether or not that\u2019s the best approach to conservation management, and that is the kind of conservation model that we\u2019re slowly coming out of,\u201d says Dr Gumert.\u00a0Dr Cheng highlights that the pandas in Singapore serve as a beacon for the rest of Singapore\u2019s four wildlife parks, which cares for over a thousand species of animals \u2014 a quarter of which are threatened in the wild.\u00a0\u201cA big part of conservation is about connecting people with wildlife, and often we need to do it at an emotional level,\u201d says Dr Cheng. \u201cThe birth of our first panda cub is stirring the hearts of many who can relate to what Jia Jia is going through as a first-time mum, while all eyes are on how her cub is developing.\u201d\u00a0According to Animal Care Officer Trisha Tay, Kai Kai is pretty much unaware that he is a new father and is his usual hungry self. (Photo courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore)Instead of merely saving iconic species, zoos get to play the unique role of \u201cconservation Robin Hoods\u201d, directing a portion of their revenue to the protection of less charismatic and conspicuous species and their corresponding habitats.\u00a0WRS, for example, is part of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), which targets critically endangered land and freshwater vertebrates in Southeast Asia.\u00a0\u201cEvery guest who visits our parks because of their favourite animals such as the giant panda, is not only learning about wildlife species and their habitats,\u201d he says. \u201cBut by supporting our parks, they are also contributing to the care of all the animals there, as well as the species which we are protecting in the wild.\u201d\u00a0A cultural symbol: of hope, peace, and excellence\u00a0Encouragingly, the population of giant pandas in the wild has shown an upward trend in recent years, and having captive-bred populations has contributed to their comeback.\u00a0In the past decade alone, their numbers have risen by 17 per cent to 1,800 \u2014\u00a0deemed a success story by the World Wildlife Fund.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll never know for sure if an animal is functionally extinct. Animal populations can be down to a critical number, but if given the right conditions, they can replenish \u2014 just as the giant panda population has doubled in the last 20 years,\u201d says Dr Gumert.\u00a0For the veterinary team at River Safari, it certainly signifies a certain degree of professional achievement as well as a source of shared joy amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s such a feel-good event, and importantly also signifies the close collaboration and friendship between China and Singapore,\u201d says Dr Cheng.\u00a0Dr Gumert highlights the importance of also recognising the cultural significance that certain animals hold.\u00a0\u201cThe Chinese love pandas. They are part of their national pride. [To tell them to give up on protecting pandas would be] like going to the United States and telling them to stop protecting bald eagles,\u201d he says.\u201cI don\u2019t think there needs to be any single reason we conserve wildlife. The fact that we culturally love pandas is good for the pandas, but I don\u2019t think we should try to restrain our interest in pandas just because maybe they wouldn\u2019t survive without our help,\u201d he adds.\u00a0\u00a0How did we get here?\u00a0Giant pandas have roamed the earth for about 2 million years, spanning from Southern China all the way to Southeast Asia. What this implies is that wild giant pandas walked alongside our human ancestor, Homo erectus.\u00a0\u201cHumans and animals have been living together for all of our history. And I don’t know how we’ve gotten to this stage in human evolution, where we now think that we should just separate ourselves from animals,\u201d says Dr Gumert. \u201cTo me, that seems antithetical \u2014\u00a0humans and wildlife, we all need to live together.\u201d\u201cI don\u2019t think the reason why other animals are going extinct is that we\u2019ve given all our money to pandas, rather, it is because of the impacts that we have on our environment,\u201d he adds.\u00a0\u201cIf I know one thing about human goodwill, it\u2019s that we don\u2019t like to just sit around and watch something we love die out\u2014 especially not if we can do something about it.\u201dA close-up of the newborn cub, still yet to be named. (Photo courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore)To support Wildlife Reserve Singapore\u2019s conservation projects, visit any of their wildlife parks today.\u00a0Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Is Breeding Giant Pandas in Captivity Enough to Save Their Species?","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/is-breeding-giant-pandas-in-captivity-enough-to-save-their-species\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]