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A pair of strong-growing malegiant pandasroar ferociously on the land beneath a female light in a tree diagram , in the first - ever footage of lesser panda courtship and mating in the wild .
For about three years , nature filmmakers Yuanqi Wu and Jacky Poon followed pandas inChina ’s Qinling Mountains , hoping to capture grounds of elusive behavior that was unseen in captive animals , which are couple under controlled conditions that do not include competitions between males .
Three-year-old giant panda up a tree in the Wolong Panda Center, China.
Their patience paid off during breeding season , when they spied two bristle males square up off at the foot of a tree , with a fertile female person in the branches above . This and other singular scenes of panda spirit — including a new cub take critical survival skills — are part of the new PBS Nature documentary " Pandas : deliver to be Wild , " premiering Wednesday ( Oct. 21 ) .
pertain : In photos : The life of a giant panda
Pandas ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) are popular for their comically orotund body shape and lovely prank , and videos of captive pandasplaying in snow;rolling aroundlike giant balls;using their head to climb ; or even accidentallyface - planting , are undeniably enchanting . But when these bears are seen in their natural habitat , " there ’s nothing cunning and cuddly about them , " Jacky Poon , " Born to be Wild " filmmaker , said in the documentary .
Giant panda mother and her one-month-old cub.
Adult male person cat bear can weigh as much as 300 pound . ( 136 kg ) and are nearly 7 feet ( 2 meters ) grandiloquent when stand upright on their hind legs , according to theWorld Wildlife Fund . Pandas are extremely territorial , and male person usually interact with female person only during checkmate season between March and May , WWF says .
In the tense standoff between the dominant , one-time male panda and an eager rival , the younger male person eventually retreated , but when the female person add up down from her rod , she fight with the master and escaped . For weeks , the two males chase after her , their growling challenges becoming more frequent and culminating in another tense showdown . But a calendar week later , when the female was finally ready to mate , just one wooer remain — the young male .
manlike pandas ' hollering , scent marking and distaff " hostage"-holding are checkmate behaviors that may trigger ovulation in distaff pandas . That could explain why pandas are so difficult to multiply in captivity , in the absence of this manly competition .
Wolong Panda Center keeper disguised as a panda. The keepers dress as pandas to visit youngsters that are candidates for the reintroduction program. Human contact is kept to a minimum.
Another mavin of " Born to be Wild " is a young virile laddie give birth through unreal insemination at the Wolong Panda Center and raised there in a special enclosure . Most of the reserve ’s cubs spring up up around other pandas and human caretaker , and so they are more social than is distinctive for uncivilized , solitary bears . However , to prepare this unseasoned panda for life in the wilderness as an grownup , the caretakers will keep him for three years only with his female parent , separated from other pandas and with very limited fundamental interaction with people .
But caretakers still need to regularly check the greenhorn ’s health and developing ; to do that , they dress in panda suits , and they further mask their human fragrance by sop themselves with panda pee . Though these costumes may not seem frightfully realistic , they are close enough to the veridical affair to befool a young panda ; imaginativeness in these youngsters is lie with to be very poor , PBS Nature representatives aver in astatement .
" Nature — Pandas : expect to be Wild " airs Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. ( ascertain local listings),pbs.org / natureand the PBS Video app
Originally published on Live Science .
