Twenty-three days ago, Lin Hui was “about to pop.” Then baby mama panda Lin Hui didn’t and perhaps wasn’t pregnant at all. But then she was, and we were told to just chill out. We enviously watched other furry lumps of glory emerge with envy and settled in to watch live footage of a sleeping bear. Then nothing.
Just in case our attention had drifted, Chiang Mai Zoo officials said yesterday the panda did not have a miscarriage and that ultrasound confirmed the fetus is in a good state.
It turns out that panda gestation is a wildly unpredictable thing.
An ultrasound scan of Lin Hui succeeded in locating a complete fetus that looks in good health, according to Dr. Bariphat Siri-arunrat, head of the panda reproduction research team at the zoo. There’s a sack with an embryo and it’s full of amniotic fluid, as it should be.
No pulse was detected from the fetus, but veterinarians said mai pen rai, that’s quite normal.
The pre-panda fetal lump was seven centimeters long.
Dr. Bariphat said Lin Hui was 121 day pregnant as of Tuesday, and that usually pandas gave birth around the 130th day. However, it was difficult to ascertain when Lin Hui would deliver, citing an example of a case in China where a panda was pregnant for 324 days. Other pregnancies have last as few as 70 days.
Alarm over miscarriage had been raised recently after Lin Hui did not go into labor at the time zoo officials initially expected, NNT reported.
Related:
Chiang Mai Zoo counts down to birth of new baby panda, again
Vet confirms: Lin Hui Panda knocked up
Code Pink: Panda baby false alarm?
OH YEAH: Live streaming hot panda action
