Giant panda's profile 3 

mating 

        Blind and toothless, the mother will spend hours licking and cleaning the baby, even cradling them in her forepaws, enabling the young to suckle, much like a human mother nursing her child. This pampering can consume up to 14 hours a day. The mother will not leave her den until a week later and even then she will only venture for a few hours looking for food before making her way back to the den. Baby droppings are also consumed by the mother to avoid attrating predators.
            A few weeks later, the baby will develop features of the giant panda like the black panda markings and the eye spots, whilst the fur continues to grow. The end of the first month, the baby will open its small eyes and embrace light for the first time, though a little blurry. But no worries, focusing will develop 3 months after birth and by that time, the mother will play with it and talking it out of the den in search for food. She will carry it by the nape of its neck and placed it nearby her feeding place. Milk teeth would emerged and it will only be able to practice on chewing bamboos.
               When the little critter learns to crawl, it will be able to hang on its mother even during tree climbs. The infant panda will lose its baby teeth, replaced by adult ones on its first birthday. It would weigh about 35kg (75 pounds) by now and bamboo becomes a primary diet.
               As it grows by observing the mother's actions, it will learn to avoid predators, learn the sounds of the forests and basically, coping with danger. It will be independant. The juvenile would hunt small animals that it comes across, learn to handle the bamboo expertly and even smartly creating games by playing with ice and rocks. It would remain with the mother for about 2 - 2 1/2 years, its size already as big as the mother's. After that the panda must strike it out on its own, after learning much survival skills from its mother. The mother's skill and experience in bringing up her cub plays an integral part in preventing adolescent mortality in the wild.