The Los Angeles Zoo and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collaborated with the San Diego Zoo on the project. Dr. Durrant works with cheetahs, pandas, and other animals. She has studied every aspect of the cheetahs. The cheetah keepers found out the hard way that female cheetahs like to be alone, because if kept together cheetahs will not breed, just like in the wild. Cheetah keepers also found out the hard way that female cheetahs don't like caring for one cub.
Females like to care for three to four babies at a time because one cub is a waste of time.
If only one cub is born, the mother will abandon the baby. The pandas at the Zoo were a little bit different. Shi Shi, the male Panda, did not want to breed with Bai Yun, the female panda, so they artificially inseminated Bai Yun. It is also hard to predict when a panda is in estrus because they are only in estrus one time every year. Artificial insemination resulted in the birth of Hua Mei in August of 1999.