Objectives of the captive breeding programme

If a successful captive-breeding programme can be established, the most modest scheme would be to establish a self-sustaining captive population. This is not impossible, since there is no single, insoluble problem that stands in the way of successful captive breeding. However, there are a series of difficulties –a naturally low rate of reproduction, aggravated by problems with getting the animals to conceive, and an unusually high level of neonatal mortality. With the major improvements in breeding success that could conceivably come about through hand rearing, with improvements in artificial insemination techniques and with the establishment of sperm banks to preserve genetic variety, this limited objective might well be achievable.

Nevertheless, there are many people who feel that if the only objective of a captive-breeding programme is to secure the animal’s future in captivity, then it is not a worthwhile exercise. If the animal people are watching can never be free in the wild, the animal is diminished, it is no longer a creature of the wild but a performing pet. This raises more ambitious functions of captive-breeding programme: to supplement wild populations or to restock suitable habitat in which pandas are now extinct. Since there is a substantial captive population of pandas and the wild population is already at a critically low level, it would be foolish not to consider these possibilities carefully.

Whether captive-bred pandas could adapt to life in the wild is uncertain, for not all release programmes have been successful. Zoo-bred animals that have not had social contact with others at crucial stages in their development may be unable to associate normally with wild animals or even to feed themselves in the wild. Consequently the animals will remain dependent on humans. Researchers know quite little about giant pandas to even guess at how growing up in captivity might affect the development of their foraging or their reproductive behaviour. Beyond the fundamental uncertainty about the ability of captives to survive at all in the wild and to integrate themselves into a natural population, are other essential questions that as yet remain unanswered. At present it is normal practice to remove a cub from its mother in time to bring her into oestrus the following season so that can mate again. This might in theory double her reproductive rate, but whether it affects the cub’s ability to socialize with other pandas is not sure. Also, the questions that whether captive reared cubs are more likely to mate as adults if released into habitat that already has an established population, and whether releasing groups of captives into virgin, unpopulated habitat will be the best strategy or not, will pose formidable problems when answering them; and at present there are so few captive reared cubs that they are largely irrelevant. But if the captive breeding programme is not only to produce exhibits for zoos, they are questions that must soon be answered.