On July 7, 2022, Nandu reporters learned from Xining Wildlife Park that the artificially bred rabbit "Lady Fox" has reached the age of one year and 2 months. This also means that China has successfully achieved artificial breeding of rabbits for the first time, filling the gap in related fields in China.
It is understood that the breeding and survival of rabbits will lay the foundation for the breeding of small cats in Xining Wildlife Park, and the park will fully summarize the experience and lessons of rabbit breeding, strive to achieve more achievements in rabbit breeding, and plan to make breakthroughs in the artificial breeding of other small cats such as desert cats.
The "lady of the fox" staring at the camera on the cat climbing frame.
The bumpy breeding path of highland endemic species
Rabbit (scientific name: Otocolobus manul) is the only animal in the cat family, rabbit genus, short and stubby, similar in size to a domestic cat, weighing 2-5 kg, of which the nominate subspecies are heavier, individuals more than 6 kg, plateau subspecies generally weigh 2-4 kg. The rabbit has a wide forehead, a short snout, and yellow to pale green pupils in different light. Rabbit ears are short and wide, the ear tips are round and blunt, the two ears are far apart, the whole body is dense and soft, the hair is rich, especially the hair on the abdomen is very long, more than double the length of the dorsal hair, and the winter abdominal hair can exceed 10cm. The lifespan of wild rabbits is generally 6-9 years old, and the lifespan of captive rabbits can reach more than 10 years old.
Rabbit in a state of alert.
Male rabbits continue to be in estrus in 12-4 months, and female rabbits generally have estrus in 1-3 months, which is a cyclical estrus, each estrus is 26-42 hours, if this cycle fails to conceive successfully, it is generally estrus again after one month. The gestation period is 9-10 weeks, generally three or four heads per litter, and the maximum can be 8 cubs at a time.
According to Qi Xinzhang, deputy director of Xining Wildlife Park, on March 1, 2021, the breeders observed that the male rabbit "Fox Simiao" and the female rabbit "Fox Shangxiang" mated, and 66 days later, at 12:25 on May 7, the working day found that "Fox Shangxiang" gave birth to a cub, and in the next 4 hours or so, 3 cubs were successively born, one of which was stillborn. Later observations found that the 3 adult live cubs were 1 male and 2 females, namely "Fox Lady", "Fox Lady" and "Fox Second Lady".
After Raising Three Children Personally for more than a month, in order to increase the chances of the little rabbit surviving, the staff took out the "Fox Lady" and "Fox Big Lang" for artificial child-rearing, and the youngest "Fox Second Lady" continued to raise children by "Fox Shangxiang".
Veterinarians are injecting drugs into "Lady Fox".
On August 8, when they had just turned 3 months old, they began to have diarrhea, vomiting and other diseases, Xining Wildlife Park and the team of the College of Veterinary Medicine of China Agricultural University finally controlled a new type of cat plague in the park after nearly a month of treatment and prevention and control (vaccines can not prevent infection, conventional cat plague treatment drugs are ineffective), but "Da Lang" and "Er Niang" eventually died of ineffective treatment, and only the strongest "Lady Fox" survived. Under the meticulous care of the staff, "Lady Fox" has grown all the way, and now she is more than one year old, weighing 3.4kg, and her body size is no different from that of an adult rabbit.
As an ancient cat, rabbit fox has a history of 6.5 million years, its own immune system is not sound, and it has a high fatality rate for toxoplasmosis, which is not harmful to general cats, and for rabbit pups. Rabbit breeding has plagued the world for decades, and it has never been successfully bred to survive in China, and the breeding of the lady has successfully filled the domestic gap.
At present, the "Lady of the Fox" weighs 3.4kg, and the daily keepers will feed her fresh lamb or beef regularly, and her physical condition is in good condition. As the "eldest princess" of Xining Wildlife Park, it has long received the attention of many netizens and fans, and in the future, this rabbit will participate in artificial breeding and conservation education related work to play its ecological protection significance.
Lay the foundation for the breeding of small cats in the park
Rabbit-related "super talk" was read by 130 million people
It is understood that at present, Xining Wildlife Park is the only zoo in China to raise and display rabbits, with 5 plateau subspecies rabbits, which are the only 5 captive plateau subspecies rabbits in the world. They are:
"狲思邈": Male, cub rescued in 2015, father of "Lady Fox".
"Fox Shangxiang": Female, the cub rescued in 2019, the mother of "Lady Fox".
"Fox Xiaoman": Female, rescued cub in 2014, is the oldest rabbit in the park.
"Little Sister": Female, cub rescued in 2015, twin sister of Fox Simiao, aunt of Lady Fox.
"Lady Fox": female, artificial breeding rabbit in 2021, the only artificial breeding rabbit in China.
Qi Xinzhang said that the breeding and survival of rabbits has laid the foundation for the breeding of small cats in the park, and Xining Wildlife Park will fully summarize the experience and lessons of rabbit breeding, strive to achieve more achievements in rabbit breeding, and make breakthroughs in the artificial breeding of other small cats such as desert cats.
The "Lady of the Fox" in her infancy.
It is worth noting that as one of the star animals of Xining Wildlife Park, its Weibo super topic #狲也 here has reached 130 million times; the cumulative playback of related content on the short video platform has reached hundreds of millions of times, becoming a new Internet celebrity animal in recent years.
Written by: Nandu reporter Chen Zhuorui
Image courtesy of Xining Wildlife Park