How Mei Xiang the giant panda fooled zoo keepers with a false pregnancy by cradling objects, not eating and staying in her den

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Everyone had hoped that Mei Xiang, who lives in the panda enclosure at the National Zoo in Washington DC, was pregnant

Even a Chinese breeding expert couldn't help giant panda Mei Xiang conceive.

She kept people guessing for months, but US National Zoo veterinarians determined on Friday that the bear had failed to become pregnant for the fifth year in a row.

Vets announced Mei Xiang was experiencing a pseudopregnancy over the past several months, which means she ovulated but did not conceive.

Animal keepers had high hopes and closely watching her behaviour and monitoring her hormone levels because she had been eating less, staying in her den and cradling objects the way she did before she gave birth once before, in 2005.


Happier times: Mei Xiang in December 2005 with her son Tai Shan, on his first trip outside at the National Zoo. He was conceived with artificial insemination


It is difficult to determine when a panda is pregnant as panda foetuses don't start developing until the final weeks of a gestation period.

Mei Xiang stopped allowing animal keepers to perform ultrasound exams on her in early July.

The zoo was hopeful because a Chinese panda breeding expert helped zoo scientists artificially inseminate Mei Xiang in January. She and male panda Tian Tian had attempted to mate but weren't successful.


Here the cub, nicknamed Butterstick, plays in snow for the first time in February 2006 with his mom. He was sent back to China in February 2010


Zoo scientists are now concerned Mei Xiang may be infertile, said David Wildt, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, which has studied panda breeding with Chinese experts.

Records from pandas worldwide dating back to 1985 show that pseudopregnancies are not rare, but consecutive ones are.

'It seems to be showing that if a giant panda has multiple years of pseudopregnancies, there's a high likelihood she will never succeed,' he said.


FLASHBACK: On December 5, 2000, the day before leaving to fly to the United States, the perhaps infertile Tian Tian (L) and Mei Xiang played together at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda


Because of that, the zoo may seek to swap Mei Xiang out for another female.

Smithsonian officials likely will begin talking with the Chinese within weeks about whether to continue trying to breed the current Washington pair - Mei Xiang and male panda Tian Tian - or perhaps move animals around within the Chinese panda programme.

The zoo was hopeful because a Chinese panda breeding expert helped zoo scientists artificially inseminate Mei Xiang in January. She and male panda Tian Tian had attempted to mate but weren't successful.

Their only other cub, Tai Shan, was born July 9, 2005, and was sent to China in February 2010.

Pandas have a long history intertwined with diplomacy between Washington and Beijing. The first panda couple, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived in 1972 as a gift to the American people after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China.

Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing produced five cubs, but none survived.

source: dailymail