March 20, 2008
Love Was Not in the Cards For Mei Xiang
We’ve been keeping an eye on the PandaCam at the Zoo because we heard it was time for a little hanky panky between the pandas. But if anything went on, we missed it.
Should nature not take its proper course, however, the Zoo’s scientists don’t want to waste an opportunity. Female pandas only go into estrus one time a year for just 48 hours.
So yesterday, reproduction scientists Copper Aitken-Palmer, JoGayle Howard, and Pierre Comizzoli (foreground) and zoo veterinarian Carlos Sanchez were part of a large team of experts that performed an artificial insemination this afternoon on Mei Xiang, the Zoo’s female giant panda.
By all reports, if the insemination is successful, Mei Xiang will give birth in the next 90 to 185 days.
(Photograph courtesy of Jessie Cohen / Smithsonian’s National Zoo/March 19, 2008)
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[...] her tenth birthday, has kept mum about her maternal status. On March 20, Mei was anesthetized and artificially inseminated. She has since coyly toyed with her adoring public’s hopes for the pitter patter of panda [...]
[...] obsessed with our pandas. We wait with bated breath for them to mate (which usually ends with an attempt at artificial insemination), wait more for word if Mei Xiang is pregnant (“we’re not sure” is the usual answer) and wait [...]