Tian Tian (male giant panda)

Tian Tian (Chinese: 添添; pinyin: Tiān Tiān; literally: "More and More") is a 275-pound male giant panda at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. The panda was born on August 27, 1997, at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, to Yong Ba (mother) and Pan Pan (father). Tian Tian is the half-brother of the San Diego Zoo's Bai Yun.

Giant pandas are thought to be solitary creatures, except for mating season and mothers with young cubs. In keeping with the habits of wild pandas, Tian is generally alone, although the zoo's female panda, Mei Xiang, and Tian are occasionally together outside of breeding season. While Tai Shan was still at the National Zoo, Tian and Tai occasionally viewed each other through a mesh-opening in the fence and were aware of each other's presence through scent marking. Male Giant Pandas play no part in raising their young in the wild. Tian and Mei are trained to participate in a full medical examination, including a blood draw, without anesthesia.

Tian Tian is a father by artificial insemination only. While he and Mei Xang have been given multiple opportunities to mate naturally--and both are interested in doing so--they have never gotten the positioning correct. This is a problem with giant pandas born in captivity. In the summer of 2005, Mei gave birth to a male cub, Tai Shan, on July 9, 2005. In keeping with the agreement made at the time Tian Tian and Mei Xiang arrived in the United States, Tai Shan left the National Zoo in February 2010 to return to his ancestral homeland. He flew to China on the same flight as his cousin Mei Lan, who was born at Zoo Atlanta.

Some of Tian Tian's semen was preserved cryogenically, and used when Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated in 2012. Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub on the night of September 16, 2012. The unnamed cub died of liver failure at a week old.

...
Wikipedia