Zhu Xingyong, Li Jiaheng, Gao Jie, Lan Jingchao, Li Mingxi, Deng Jue, Peng Wenpei, Feng Yongyou, Li Bi, Pang Huizhong, Liu Jiawen, Kou Jie, Wang Ye
Sichuan Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology on Endangered Wildlife, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu 610081, China.
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 20;14(24):3694. doi: 10.3390/ani14243694.
The giant panda () is one of the animals with the largest body weight differences between its birth and adult stages, where the newborn cub is 0.1% the size of its mother. The rapid growth of panda cubs has been reported previously, but little is known about the growth pattern of their entire lifetime. In this study, we analyzed body weight records from 206 captive giant pandas collected between 2000 and 2022. The dataset comprised 26,340 measurements, including 12,314 records from 98 males and 14,026 from 108 females, with the oldest male and female being 32 and 37 years old, respectively. Utilizing machine learning, we predicted daily body weights throughout the pandas' lifespan, allowing us to establish detailed daily normative body weight ranges from birth to advanced age. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of lifetime body weight distribution in giant pandas, enhancing our understanding of their developmental biology and informing improved body weight management strategies for captive populations.
大熊猫是出生与成年阶段体重差异最大的动物之一，新生幼崽的体型仅为母亲的0.1%。此前已有关于熊猫幼崽快速生长的报道，但对其整个生命周期的生长模式却知之甚少。在本研究中，我们分析了2000年至2022年间收集的206只圈养大熊猫的体重记录。该数据集包含26340条测量数据，其中98只雄性大熊猫有12314条记录，108只雌性大熊猫有14026条记录，年龄最大的雄性和雌性分别为32岁和37岁。利用机器学习，我们预测了大熊猫一生中的每日体重，从而能够建立从出生到高龄的详细每日标准体重范围。本研究首次对大熊猫一生的体重分布进行了全面分析，增进了我们对其发育生物学的理解，并为圈养大熊猫群体改进体重管理策略提供了依据。
