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| Study on the Mechanism of Gender Imbalance in Captive Giant Panda Population |
| Key Laboratory of State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Conservation Biology of Rare Animals in the Giant Panda National Park, China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, Chengdu 611800, Sichuan, China |
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Abstract The ex-situ conservation of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) has been carried out for nearly 70 years. Nowadays, the captive population is genetically healthy and basically self-sustaining. According to the 2019 giant panda pedigrees, the total sex ratio of the existing captive giant panda population (n=612) is 1.22︰1 (♀336/♂276), which is significantly different from that of 1︰1 (P=0.015). At present, the research on the mechanism of sex ratio imbalance has not been conducted. In this study, the largest captive giant panda population in China was taken as the research object. The data about the population in the sex ratio at birth for 36 years and the numbers of individuals and dead ones by sex and age for 11 years were analyzed. The sex ratio at birth and life expectancy of captive giant panda were calculated for the first time. The results showed that the sex ratio at birth of the biggest captive giant panda population was 1.01︰1, which was not significantly different from the sex ratio of 1︰1 (P=0.926). The mortality rate of male pandas at the early stage was higher than that of female pandas (♀38.24%/♂48.72%). The median life expectancy at birth was 21.4 years, 23.5 years for females and 19.8 years for males. The findings suggested that two reasons were responsible for the gender imbalance of captive giant pandas: the higher mortality rate of male pandas at the early stage and the longer life expectancy of female pandas. The results provide a basis for the breeding and management of captive giant pandas and for research on wild giant panda population in the future.
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Received: 24 July 2023
Published: 01 November 2023
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