大熊猫超轻初生幼仔的成功哺育

Successful rearing of a giant panda cub with a low birth weight

大熊猫初生幼仔体重较轻,仅为正常母体体重的千分之一,平均144.9±40.59 g（张志和和魏辅文,2006）。初生体重在70 g以下的幼仔,常被称之为超轻体重幼仔,初生体重超轻、身体瘦弱活动无力,产后无叫声或叫声小是其主要特点。

The average weight for neonatal giant panda cubs in captivity is approximately 142.6±39.4 g.Occasionally there are some that have a body weight lower than 70 g.These smaller neonates have a high mortality rate.In 2006,a female panda at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding,gave birth to twins.One of the neonatal cubs had an extremely low birth weight of 51 g.This cub was weak,had a low body temperature of 33.4 ℃,and was unable to nurse.We successfully reared the cub by maintaining his normal temperature in an incubator,and providing him with the appropriate amount of colostrum.When the cub gained enough body weight and strength to nurse,he was switched out with his sibling on the mother.The neonate in this study is the smallest giant panda born in captivity that survived.This article will compare the following aspects of the rearing of this underweight cub to those of normal weight cubs： environmental temperature,daily nursing bouts,and behavior of mother with cub.This investigation offers a method for rearing underweight giant panda cubs in the future.