New breeding techniques may mean more pandas

Sure, the giant panda born this summer at the National Zoo is a celebrity, the roly-poly star of an Internet Panda Cam and the object of a frenzied naming contest.

But the little guy is also a symbol of hope, because he was conceived with new techniques that scientists predict will increase captive panda populations and bolster the endangered mammal's survival in the wild.

Until recently, veterinarians have had limited success breeding giant pandas in captivity using artificial insemination. For one thing, an adult female ovulates only once a year and vets couldn't always time the procedure just right. But zoo researchers have greatly increased the odds by developing tools for both pinpointing the panda's maximum fertility and delivering semen more effectively.

Last February, JoGayle Howard, a reproductive veterinarian at the zoo, began a daily sampling of Mei Xiang's vaginal cells and studied them under a microscope, looking for the orange color that indicates high estrogen levels; when the hormone peaks, an egg is released. Meanwhile, Steven Monfort, a research veterinarian, monitored the estrogen in Mei's urine.

When Mei ovulated on March 10, zoo staff released her mate, 8-year-old Tian Tian, into her pen. But the couple "tried and tried and nothing happened," Monfort tells Smithsonian magazine. The next day, Howard deposited Tian Tian's semen with a fiber-optic-guided, intrauterine catheter she'd developed. The 7-year-old Mei was impregnated after one try. "We just nailed this right on," Monfort says.

Mei's baby, a male, arrived four months later. After a zoo-sponsored Internet contest, which drew tens of thousands of votes, the cub was named Tai Shan, meaning "peaceful mountain."

Tai is part of a panda mini baby boom. Four cubs were born this summer at research centers in China, thanks to artificial insemination procedures by National Zoo-trained Chinese researchers.

National Zoo officials say they expect to send the cub to a research and breeding center in China at age 2. Until then, he'll likely stay in the national spotlight.