The practice of keeping pandas in captivity, however, resulted in an immediate decline in the overall number of wild giant pandas. In Baoxing county, for example, over 300 pandas were recorded during the first panda census in the early 1970s. Now there are only 100.
"This is because, since the 1950s, 136 wild pandas have been held captive in Baoxing county, and most of them are cubs, which are easy to capture," Hu said, reported Sanlian Life Week.
Mating difficulty
Until 1999, most of these captive giant pandas were not able to be artificially inseminated. Records from the Panda Studbook reveal that only 66 adult pandas (28 percent) in captivity are breeding and only 12 have been born in captivity.
Of all captive-born males, only two are reported to have ever mated and only 12 percent of captive-born pandas survive the first year. Newborn pandas often die at an early age; in order to maintain the captive population, new wild pandas had to be captured.
Since 2000, due to breakthroughs in artificial insemination and cub rearing, the number of captive-bred pandas started to rise. "One benefit of successful artificial insemination is that wild giant pandas are no longer captured. Along with efforts to end poaching and protect panda habitats, the population of wild pandas began to grow," Hu said.
But captive breeding has many side effects. Under captive conditions, the animals' lack of enthusiasm about mating is exacerbated. Breeders have tried a number of measures to try to boost the sex drive of male pandas, including showing videos of other pandas making love, prescribing them Viagra and even giving them sex toys.
Pandas in Beijing Zoo, for example, lost their breeding capabilities and had to be shipped to Sichuan to be artificially inseminated. "Although captive-bred pandas resemble wild ones, they are actually quite different," Hu told Sanlian Life Week.
Close breeding is another issue threatening the health of pandas in captivity. More than a quarter of the world's captive-bred panda population descended from the same male giant panda, Panpan, who was thought to have over 130 descendants.
Panpan died in December 28, 2016, as the oldest male giant panda in captivity. While he is considered a "hero" for populating China's panda species, he nevertheless exacerbates close breeding among pandas.
While captive-bred pandas and even their breeders are becoming stars online thanks to viral videos and live-streaming channels, wild protection stations are troubled by the lack of funding and lack of eligible experts to carry out further research in the wild.
China often offers generous funding for academic research on pandas and captive breeding projects. However, funding wild protection stations are comparatively lacking, according to employees working at these stations.
