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First, it was sex tapes. Now, it's baby tapes. The first round was apparently successful as it led to two cubs. Now, tapes are being used to help her know how to look after her two young cubs, including how to feed them properly. What's more, she's actually watching the tapes! Besides the videos, she's also listening to recordings of baby pandas' cries to remind her of her role. Actually, while mating and having babies may not come naturally to giant pandas, looking after the babies once they're in the world is natural to giant panda mummies and need not be taught. However, they usually only can care for one cub. So when they have twins, they end up abandoning the weaker one to give full attention to the stronger one. That's sad, but at least one cub survives. Back in August 2003, an ultrasound showed Bai Yun (Hua Mei's Mama in San Diego Zoo) to be carrying twins but eventually, she only gave birth to one (Mei Sheng, just turned 1 on 19 August and weighing more than 50 pounds as compared to a paltry 4 ounces at birth), and there was never any update on what happened to the other. Now, Hua Mei has pipped Mama / Grandma Bai Yun to it and had twins of her own! To ensure a better chance of survival for both cubs, the elder one is being hand-reared. At some point soon, both cubs will be swap-reared, with each spending time with Mama Hua Mei in turn. Below is a picture showing Hua Mei giving birth to one of her cubs. I'm not too sure about that - the pink thing looks more like her tongue.
Besides, the birth of a giant panda cub is usually more dramatic, to the point of it shooting out of the mother's body. Full story of her Hua Mei's mama education here: Panda gets video tutorials on cub care Caption story of the birth: Returned panda gives birth to twins |
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lazy.