Qiao Qiao (#624)

Basic Profile

Qiao Qiao (Chinese: 乔乔), studbook number 624, is a male giant panda of the Qinling subspecies (秦岭亚种), born in the wild around 2004. He has a round face, short snout, and distinctive brown chest hair — characteristic features of the Qinling lineage.

He was found injured in April 2006 and rescued by the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Center.

The Frozen Semen Breakthrough (2019)

Qiao Qiao’s frozen semen was collected and stored by the Qinling Panda Research Center. On March 27, 2019, it was used for artificial insemination on female Zhu Zhu (珠珠, studbook 509). On July 10, 2019, Zhu Zhu gave birth to healthy twins — a male weighing 122g and a female weighing 170g.

This was the first successful use of frozen semen in Qinling giant panda breeding, a major technical breakthrough for the subspecies program.

Wild Breeding Success (2019)

In a remarkable achievement, Qiao Qiao was released into the Tiantai Mountain area of the Qinling Mountains in March 2019 as part of the wild breeding introduction program. In early April, he successfully mated with a wild female panda.

On September 16, 2019, the female gave birth to twin males in a wild den. Researchers monitored the cubs using a “cub exchange” strategy — swapping the twins between the mother and human care every month (3 swaps total) to ensure both survived while maintaining minimal human contact.

On December 12, 2019, Qiao Qiao and the cubs were safely recovered and transferred to the Hetaoping Wild Training Base.