- Birth: Giant pandas are born tiny (about 100g or 4 ounces), blind, white and helpless. The mother cradles her tiny cub in a paw and doesn’t leave the den for several days after giving birth.
- Cub: Cubs soon develop soft gray fur which becomes ruff and develops its black and white pattern in a month. Cubs rely on mother’s milk for the first year, but start to eat bamboo after six months. At three months they are able to crawl. Cubs easily die in the wild because they are so small and defenceless. The mother has to leave them alone in the den to eat for four hours a day.Giant pandas weigh about 45 kg (100 lb) at one year. Cubs live with their mothers for up to two years.
- Maturity: Giant pandas are fully mature and able to breed at six years old. The rate of reproduction is about one cub every two years, with gestation( carrying of an embryo) taking 3-5 months.