After a heartbreaking miscarriage last year, it looks like Ocean Park’s resident female panda, Ying Ying, is ready to have another go at populating the world with more baby pandas.
Ocean Park announced today that its Giant Panda Adventure enclosure will be temporarily closed as Ying Ying and male giant panda Le Le, both 10 years old, are entering their sixth mating season.
Suzanne Gendron, executive director of Zoological Operations and Education, said Ying Ying has been displaying characteristics of sexual receptivity in the last few weeks (a period known as “oestrus” or “heat”), such as water play, vocalisations and restlessness. Not unlike the mating displays one can observe at Beatship, then.
Rather importantly (and hilariously), Le Le has been undergoing a special training regimen to make sure his gams are in tip-top condition for mounting Ying Ying.
“To increase the chance of successful mating, we have been providing hind leg training for Le Le to strengthen his leg muscles,” Gendron said. You hear that lads? If the panda isn’t skipping leg day, then neither should you.
In addition to natural mating, Ying Ying will be artificially inseminated at the peak of her oestrus to improve the chances of her womb bearing adorable panda fruit.
According to Ocean Park’s press release, while female pandas may display the physical and hormonal changes characteristic of pregnancy, they are not conclusive. Pregnancies can only be confirmed in a small window – around two weeks – before the birth by ultrasound, during which miscarriage and reabsorption of the foetus can still occur.
If Ying Ying successfully gives birth, her cub will be the first giant panda to be born in captivity in Hong Kong. We’d better leave those randy pandas to it, then – what’s the panda equivalent to leaving a sock on the doorknob?
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