At 22: 32, August 14, 2018 (local time), a giant panda named Liang Bang gave birth to a female panda cub weighing 75g and length of 15.5cm at the Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan. On the early morning of August, 16, Liang Bang gave birth to a stillborn weighing 3.4g.
On August 8, the giant panda Liang Bang began to show parturient signs like eating less. This new-born cub was underweight and small. When taken from the mother’s arms, the cub’sskin temperature was; and when artificially nurse, it could not eat independently. Then it showed signs of slow breathing. It was dying. Before this delivery, relevant experts from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding had been to the Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan to offer feeding and other =guidance, along with coordination services. After the cub was born, Chinese and Japanese breeders worked closely together, attempting various targeted measures, responding to the newborn’s condition. They placed the cub in an incubator to aid oxygen intake and heat preservation, monitored various indicators, and conducted artificial supplementary suckling. As of the release date of the report, the cub has improved and is breathing fully. It has been returned to the mother Liang Bang to be reared.
2018 is the 47th anniversary since China and Japan established diplomatic relations. With the increasing international influence of giant pandas and the development of the Bang Family, they have become an important emotional outlet for Japanese people as well as an important witness to diplomatic relations between China and Japan. In 1994, an international scientific research and breeding project for giant pandas was launched in China and Japan. With concerted and unremitting efforts, Chinese and Japanese experts had successfully helped giant pandas in Japan give birth to 18 cubs (15 surviving) across 10 litters, as of the end of 2017. Consequently, the number of giant pandas in Japan is the largest overseas and only smaller than that in Mainland China. The Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan breeds the largest number of pandas among institutions participating in the international breeding and joint study project of giant pandas and has achieved the most fruitful results in scientific research and cooperative breeding with the Chinese. As a result, the Bang Family has become the largest overseas Chinese giant panda families.
According to relevant agreements, 11 giant pandas have returned from Japan to China. The Japanese people have spontaneously visited them in Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding several times. In June 2018, enthusiastic Japanese panda fans came to visit the giant panda Qiu Bang, a Bang Family member that left the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding for Safari Park Shezhen to live. Those visitors participated in making giant panda enrichment toys with the help of panda experts and gave the panda gifts that they brought with them from Japan, contributing to bilateral relations between China and Japan.
The giant panda Liang Bang, born in Adventure World on September 6, 2000, has been living well in Japan. This giant panda gave birth to Yong Bang and Mei Bang on September 13, 2008 (returned to China in 2013); to Yang Bang and Hai Bang on August 11, 2010; to You Bang on August 10, 2012 (returned to China in 2017); to Tao Bang and Ying Bang on December 2, 2014; and to Jie Bang on September 16, 2016.
We hope this newborn overseas cub grows up to be healthy in 2018.