Giant panda bear Mating Habits

by Wildlife Adm November 27, 2023

Giant pandas are polygynous, breeding between March and May. The female attracts a male through a series of bleats and groans. Gestation lasts about 5 months, then the female gives birth in a cave or base of a hollow tree to 1 or 2 cubs. Cubs are born blind and toothless, weighing only 90 to 130 grams, or about 1/800th of the mother's weight.

Cubs will stay in a den until 6 months of age when they are able to trot alongside their mother. They are weaned at about a year old but stay with their mother for another 6 months. Some cubs may not leave the mother for several years until she falls pregnant again. Giant pandas become reproductively mature between 4 and 8 years old.