Filmmakers of PBS has filmed the mating of giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains in China. This is the first time that a natural mating of pandas in the wild has been filmed.
The crew of PBS was filming an episode of their show Nature when they spotted two males in an aggressive standoff fighting for a female panda on top of a tree. PGD has been tracking the giant pandas in Qinling Mountains for three years to witness the rare courtship in the wild.
The female panda seemed to be uninterested at first, but a week later, she was found to be copulating with the younger male panda. Male standoffs can be violent and help trigger ovulation in female pandas which probably explain why natural mating in zoos rarely happen, MailOnline reported.
First Video of Pandas Mating in the Wild
The first-ever footage of panda courtship and mating in the wild shows two male pandas ferociously fighting on the ground while the female panda was perched in a tree.
Nature filmmakers Yuanqi Wu and Jacky Poon followed have followed the pandas in Qinling Mountains in China for nearly three years in hopes of capturing evidence of the elusive behavior of large pandas that is unseen in captive animals, which is the natural mating. Pandas in captivity mate under controlled conditions which does not involve a fight between males to win over a female panda.
Finally, their patience paid off when they captured footage of the courtship ritual and mating process of the pandas during the breeding season, LiveScience reported. They spied on two large male pandas squaring off at the foot of a tree with a fertile female on top of the branches.
Their show in the PBS Nature documentary entitled "Pandas: Born to Be Wild" premiered last Wednesday, October 21. It also showed other remarkable scenes of the life of a panda in the wild, like a young cub learning essential surviving skills.
Who Was the Victor?
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), pandas are territorial animals. Males and females usually interact only during mating season, which happens between May and March.
The fight between the two male pandas resulted in the younger male leaving, and when the female panda eventually went down, she fought with the victor and escaped. But that did not end there as the two males continued to trail her and the fight between the males eve grew more frequent that ended in an intense confrontation.
However, the female panda was seen copulating with the younger panda after a week when the courtship was filmed. In the end, the younger male stands as the true victor.
According to a report by LiveScience, the male pandas' bellowing, scent marking and holding hostage, the female is a behavior that triggers ovulation in female pandas. This courtship ritual is so difficult to witness among pandas in captivity which explains how the absence of male competition could be a challenge in breeding pandas.
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