The “World’s First Live Broadcast of Giant Panda Cub’s Birth and Growth” program will be officially launched on August 12. The program has been co-planned by Sichuan Tourist Administration, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and Pandaid International Limited of Hong Kong, with the joint efforts of the world’s largest video website “YouTube”, the famous Japanese video website “NicoNico” and China’s largest video website “Youkutudou”.

 

The female giant panda’s fertility is a most miraculous thing in comparison with other creatures. The female is fertile for no more than three days a year, and the time span for its pregnancy is from 80 to 200 days. What’s more, a female panda can also experience a pseudopregnancy. Due to these uncertainties, when a panda will give birth is probably one of the hardest things to predict. YouTube and NicoNico (the “pandapia” section)” have made it possible for Internet users across the world to witness the miraculous process of a giant panda’s birth in Chengdu starting on August 12. The program is also available at Youkutudou’s official homepage “熊猫家园-pandapia ” (“pandapia”, derived from the English words “panda” and “utopia”, means an ideal home where human beings and animals like giant panda can live in harmony with the nature). Afterwards, Internet users all over the world can watch the marvelous and vivid growth process of giant panda cubs through all the partnered platforms. Viewers can watch when the baby panda cries for the first time, the moment when it can hear a voice and when its fur begins to turn black and white. Later, viewers can witness the moment when the baby panda opens its eyes, the moment when the baby panda walks with a half-standing status as well as many wonderful moments of the baby panda’s growth. Meanwhile, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding will carry out the synchronous promotion and interaction activities at the famous international social network “Facebook” and the famous Chinese social networking platform “Sina Microblog” and “WeChat Public Platform” to promote and shape the Giant Panda Star of 2014 and show the unique glamour of giant panda to the world.

 

Aibang 

 

Aibang

 

Aibang

 

Yaxing and the cub 

 

The cub 

 

The cub  

 

 Activity arrangements:

 

I. Live broadcast of a giant panda’s birth and growth

 

Time: August 12, 2014

 

Place: Moonlight Nursery

 

Content: The world’s first live broadcast of the entire process of giant panda’s parturition will start. Internet users across the world will witness the important parturition process such as the birth of baby panda and the moment when the breeders carry the baby panda and go to the brood chamber to cut the umbilical cord. The live broadcast will end when the baby panda returns back to its mother.

 

Meanwhile, Internet users will witness various wonderful moments of the baby panda’s growing together such as when the baby panda cries for the first time, the moment when the baby panda can hear a voice, and when the panda’s fur begins to turn black and white. Later, viewers will watch the moment when the baby panda opens its eyes, the moment when the baby panda walks with a half-standing status as well as many wonderful moments of the baby panda’s growth. By watching the follow-up plans after the live broadcast of giant panda parturition, viewers will see such behaviors as crawling, climbing a tree and eating bamboo.

 

II. Giant panda naming rules solicitation activity

 

Activity duration: mid-August to mid-September

 

Solicitation platforms: ①overseas: the relevant forum opened at the official homepage “pandapia” of “YouTube” and famous Japanese video website “NicoNico”; ② domestic: the relevant forum opened at the official homepage “熊猫家园 - pandapia ”of “Youkutudou”;

 

Activity content: Internet users log in the special forum and offer their own suggestion or banter the other names of giant panda to generate a heated discussion of the global network name solicitation; five naming rules will be finally issued by the experts of Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding according to the suggestions from the users, and the participants will get a surprise.

 

III. Name solicitation activity

 

1st round: Open nomination (preliminary)

 

Duration: mid-September to mid-October

 

Information release platform: ① overseas: the official account “pandapia” on “YouTube”, “NicoNico” and “FACEBOOK”; ② domestic: the official account “熊猫家园 - pandapia” on microblog and WeChat, “Youkutudou” and “熊猫家园 - pandapia” at the official website of Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

 

Name solicitation method and procedures

 

Users can send a private letter to the account on Sina microblog (“熊猫家园-pandapia”), the account on Facebook (“pandapia”) or deliver the letter to the activity mailbox (pandapia@sina.com, info@pandapia.com); the contents of private letter fall into graphic and text information or video link.[Graphic and text information: the users should integrate the solicited name and the reason for naming into a manuscript to deliver; video link: the users can search the related content of naming at “熊猫家园-pandapia” platform of YouTube, NicoNico and Youku, then download such content and make a video clip to upload to the corresponding platform to complete the delivery of the link]

 

Note: the content of the private letter released by the user should not contain religious and political factors; nor are conspiracy, negative energy, extreme topic and non-mainstream ideology, etc. allowed to be included in the content.

 

The staff of the activity organizing group will release the results through the domestic (Microblog) and overseas (Facebook) “pandapia” official account after collating and summarizing the information and combing the topic; the information format should be as follows (set the naming of Chengji at Sina microblog as an example):

 

#2014 Global name solicitation for giant panda# @ microblog account of the netizen proposal of naming: Chengjiu. As this baby panda is the ninth baby of its mother, it is named with a partial tone of “Jiu” and continues the meaning of the name of its mother "Chengji" and its aunt "Chenggong” to symbolize the thriving giant panda protection work of the human; so the name we propose for the baby panda is “Chengjiu”.

 

The staff of the activity organizing group will filter the solicited names for the first time according to the popularity of different solicited names discussed in the topic and select the ten most significant solicited names in China and also select another ten names in the overseas (there will be 20 solicited names to be selected in the world).

 

2nd round: Solicited names pool (vote)

 

Duration: mid-October to mid-November

 

Activities: summarize the 20 “recommended names” selected from the two platforms (China: microblog, overseas: Facebook); the 20 “recommended names” will be published at the official account “pandapia” on Microblog (China) and Facebook (overseas) after the language is unified and the nationalities of the contributors are marked. The voting platform will be established respectively in China and in the overseas to invite Internet users across the world to vote.

 

3rd round: Unveiling

 

Time: November 20

 

Activities: the expert group will select five candidate names according to the votes on the platforms and publish the final results of the name collection at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on November 20.

 

IV. Baby panda naming ceremony

 

Time: November 20

 

Activities: To invite international stars to visit Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and interact with the baby panda obtaining the name, and call for the establishment of “International Panda Day”; the related activities will be broadcasted at the cooperative video web portals to let more people know about the giant panda and Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

 

V. Zero-distance contact with baby panda

 

Time: mid-December

 

Activities: To invite the user obtaining the naming rights and another four users collected by the expert group to visit Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and personally contact with giant panda and learn about giant panda to develop their interest in knowing more information about giant panda. The whole process of the activity will be videoed and an activity memorial DVD for the participants will be produced; the video program will be uploaded to the related homepage of “pandapia”.

 

Background information:

 

Introduction to four potential mother giant pandas at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

 

Aibang: a giant panda returnee from Japan; Aibang is one of the world’s only twin baby pandas bearing in winter and the last baby of "hero mother” Meimei who lived in Japan. The mating objective of Aibang of this time included Meilan who returned from the U.S; though their mating failed, the conversation between such two giant pandas was very attractive. If Aibang successfully gives birth to a baby panda, she will be the first Returnee mother panda at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

 

Yazai: Yazai is from “gentlefolk”; she is the “daughter” of “hero mother” Yaya and the world famous “Olympic panda” "Kebi”. Yazai is the famous “iron lady” at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding with an irrascible and hot personality; she is often mistaken to be a male giant panda. If Yazai successfully gives birth to a baby panda, she will be a first-time mother, and we will see a tender Yazai as a mother.

 

Nini: Nini was born in 2008 and is the baby of mother Chengji; her twin brother is Yingying, the name of which is given to cater the slogan of Beijing Olympic Games “Welcome to Beijing”. The birth weight of Yingying and Nini both exceeded 200 gram, which is very unusual in the giant panda kingdom, and the brother and sister are very healthy. Nini’s brother “Chengjiu” was born earlier this year, and we wonder whether "Chengjiu” will have a “nephew” of the same age?

 

Xiangbing: she is the “second head of the round face family” and the last baby born to “hero mother” Bingbing. Xiangbing has many world famous brothers and sisters such as Lunlun living in the U.S, Jiaozi living in Chengdu and Bingxing living in Spain. Now, it's the expectant period for Xiangbing, and we hope that she will continue to honor her family.

 

Let’s wait and see: When can people witness which mother panda will give birth to a baby？ We will witness the birth of the baby panda after the expectant parturition process of a certain mother panda begins! The live broadcast will end when a series of procedures has been completed (for example, the breeder carries the baby panda and goes to the brood chamber to cut the umbilical cord) and returns the baby panda back to its mother.