Week 245 ( 2 May - 8 May 2008)

TigerWoods and Madonna mate in the icy weather

This week winter arrived at Laohu Valley with a vengeance. Temperatures plummeted and was accompanied by quite a lot of rain. This meant that Cathay and her cubs out in the quarantine camp under the pole shelter were potentially in danger. At first, she stayed with the cubs, lying near them and keeping them warm and dry. But then she started walking around the quarantine camp and pacing along the fences and not spending so much time with the cubs. It then started raining really hard and the decision was made to rather move the cubs into the breeding centre. First , Cathay was lured into one side of the building and locked in. Then the staff first picked up one cub using a towel and later the second cub and taking them into the breeding centre. More straw and bedding was placed inside the breeding box on 327’s side and all the doors to the building were closed to keep out the icy wind.

What was amazing was that both cubs were not only nice and warm, but were also remarkably dry considering that they had been lying in the pole shelter which is not waterproof. Both cubs were quite feisty and cheeky when they were handled by the staff, but luckily they soon calmed down inside the breeding box. A large piece of meat was placed in the cage where the cubs were and Cathay was lured to them. At first she was rather upset at being locked up, but she soon started feeding on the meat. She was locked inside for two days until the rain had stopped. By then, she was being allowed out into the outside cages but not yet into the quarantine camp. On the third day when the sun came out and the temperature improved, Cathay was allowed into the quarantine camp. She soon came back and fetched the cubs one at a time and took them back to the pole shelter. Over the next few days she would carry the cubs back into the breeding centre whenever it became cold and then she would bring them out into the sun as soon as it warmed up.

TigerWoods and Madonna were seriously working on the next litter of cubs.
Madonna normally would be lying down, but when TigerWoods came to lay down she would get up and start pacing along the quarantine camp fence. She would then go to Tigerwoods and lay down in front of him. He then got up and mated with her. Afterwards they would both get into the bush area.

They were seen mating two times and they were heard mating two more times everyday. They continuously and successfully mated for 3 days, so it is only a matter of 100 or so days and more cubs could be expected at Laohu Valley.