Under captive conditions, female giant pandas are around 5 years old, male giant pandas enter sexual maturity at around 6 years old, and wild giant pandas mature slightly later. Except during the mating season, giant pandas generally live alone and have their own activity areas.
Female giant pandas experience estrus once a year, with a brief peak period of 2-3 days each time. The estrus period is usually between March and May each year. Adult male and female giant pandas mainly communicate with each other through olfactory and olfactory cues, gradually gathering in one place to understand and attract each other. At the climax of estrus, they express love and achieve mating through continuous auditory and visual communication such as bleating and mating posture.
In the wild mating grounds of giant pandas, sometimes as many as 2-5 male giant pandas compete for priority mating rights through fights, and all successfully mate with the same female giant panda. There are also cases where only one male mate with one female giant panda. Mating is often done on the ground, as well as in trees. At the mating site, there are also sub adults and pandas with weak mating abilities watching and learning. The estrous behavior of male giant pandas occurs with the estrous behavior of female giant pandas, and also reaches orgasm with their climax. During the same estrous season, a male giant panda can mate with multiple female giant pandas, and the same female giant panda can also accept mating from multiple males. Therefore, marriage in the world of giant pandas is a polygamous system. After mating, the male and female giant pandas live separately again, and pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare are completed by the female giant panda alone.
