The milk of human kindness: providing baby pandas with the bare necessities

As Edinburgh Zoo and Scotland awaits the birth of a cub - or two - to Tian Tian hopefully any new arrivals will happily suckle on their mother in order to receive the essential nutrients and antibodies they need to help them grow. However, pandas are not always comfortable breeding in a zoo, and will sometimes reject or even accidentally kill their newborn babies if they are feeling stressed. Similarly, if two cubs are born to a panda, one will be rejected so that all of the mother's attention and milk can be invested in just one cub. In these scenarios humans will step in to lend a hand, which is why conservationists in China are keen on developing an artificial milk formula for abandoned or orphaned panda cubs, and are looking for help from scientists at the University of Glasgow. At the moment, hand-rearing of orphan panda cubs relies on cows' milk adapted for puppy dogs or, in the case of twins, swapping them when the mother is distracted so each can get sufficient milk. However, better support for panda cubs is needed because pandas, unlike humans, are heavily dependent on the mother's first milk, or 'colostrum', which contains large amounts of antibodies needed to protect the newborn from disease. It is absolutely essential for panda cubs to receive their full quota of colostrum milk from their mothers - without it, they would die.