Pandas reticent about mating

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 24

Pandas reticent about mating

NZPA-AP Washington

All remains quiet in one of America’s most public sex lives, but panda-keepers at the National Zoo in Washington say they are not worried yet.

The giant pandas, HsingHsing and Ling-Ling, play together every morning, but so far they have shown no signs of mating, according to Dr Robert Hoage, of the zoo.

The zoo’s panda watchers have been allowing the rare animals to play together daily since March, in the hope that the female, LingLing, becomes receptive to mating. “While the pair have got together in March and April in past years, zoo officials won’t start being seriously concerned about the lack of

mating until mid-June or later, Dr Hoage said. Once Ling-Ling does become receptive, she and Hsing-Hsing will have only about 36 hours to mate. Veterinarians are prepared to resort to artificial insemination, should the pandas fail to mate.

The efforts of the pair to produce offspring have become a springtime fixture in Washington. The pandas have drawn millions of visitors to the zoo since they were given by China in 1972. In their early years, Hsing-Hsing’s fumbling efforts at sexual relations made him the focus of considerable humour and even derision in certain circles, but he finally succeeded in 1983 and again last year. A 4.7 ounce cub born in

1983 died within hours of a lung infection, and last year the panda’s tiny offspring was stillborn. Both failures resulted from infections contracted before birth, zoo officials later said.

Dr Hoage has estimated that Ling-Ling has only three to five years left for reproduction. In general, pandas have had little success in reproducing in capivity, although there have been two successful births in Mexico City, and one in Madrid.

In the wild the animals are becoming increasingly scarce and more than 40 have reportedly died of famine in their native China as a result of a withering of the bamboo which is their staple diet. The total wild panda population is thought to be only about 1000.