Twenty-three adorable balls of fluff made their debut at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China this week. The roly-poly cubs were proudly displayed by the researchers who strive to keep the species going, and many adoring fans came to see the pandas show off for the first time. And by show off, we mean simply lay there being squeal-inducingly cute.
Such a fuss is made over the birth of panda cubs particularly because they are so hard to come by. The species, only found in China, has suffered as much of its habitat has been taken over by humans. But another major reason contributes to the panda’s lack of population boom: They just don’t like having sex.
Female pandas are only fertile for about 24 to 72 hours each year, making successful procreation pretty difficult. If a male and female fail to make it happen in that slim window, they must wait an entire year to try again.
But females aren’t the only ones finicky about when to get it on. Males have zero interest in sex during the summer in the fall, only ramping up their interest in ladies in winter and early spring, lining up with a female’s estrus. Researchers have taken to showing the bears, who particularly struggle to mate in captivity, video of other pandas having sex in hopes of encouraging a little action with the help of “panda porn.”
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Pandas also like to be coy about whether or not they conceived. It’s very difficult to tell when a panda is pregnant, because females can exhibit signs of pregnancy, like nesting and different eating habits, even when they aren’t actually carrying a cub. It can also be challenging to get pandas to participate in an ultrasound that could confirm the presence of a fetus. Often, scientists can’t say definitively a panda is pregnant until the butter stick-sized cub is squeaking and wriggling about in the den.
These challenges have led researchers to use artificial insemination, when doing the deed doesn’t prove to be enough. In spring 2015, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated with sperm from the zoo’s male, Tian Tian, and another male, Hui Hui, who lives in China. Sperm from more than one male is typically used to increase the likelihood an embryo forms. Cub Bei Bei was born in August of that year, with DNA tests showing he was sired by Tian Tian.
Success of efforts like these helped remove pandas from the endangered species list in September. The animal is now classified as vulnerable, but will struggle to up its population numbers as long as sex remains a chore.
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