Pandas

Giant pandas are territorial throughout the year, with males and females maintaining separate feeding territories. During the breeding season (March to May in the wild), males increase their territory size to overlap the territories of several females, with whom they attempt to mate. Gestation is five months long, and 1-2 young are born (although only one is ever raised). The young are 3.2-4.6 oz (90-130 g) in weight and 5.9-6.6 in (15-17 cm) long at birth, and are blind and helpless. They are initially covered with sparse white fur, but the characteristic black patches appear within two weeks. At two months, the cub weighs 7-11 lb (3-5 kg), its eyes are open, and it has begun to crawl, although its hind limbs will not yet support it. At six months, the cub is weaned (meaning it has stopped suckling), but it does not leave its mother until she becomes pregnant again, about six months later.

After leaving their mother, young female pandas are thought to wander some distance to find a territory in a different area. This behavior reduces inbreeding in panda populations. Pandas become sexually mature at 6-7 years of age, and probably live to about age 15 in the wild. The small number of young produced per female per year, plus the relatively late age of sexual maturity, means that population growth rates are low. This makes giant panda populations vulnerable to extinction if the rate of mortality increases.