Panda Super Couple Is Super Fertile
Since 2003, Bai Yun and her consort, Gao Gao, have produced three cubs, making them one of the most reproductively successful panda couples ever in captivity. Their youngest offspring, a chubby female, will be named Monday when she reaches 100 days old, following Chinese tradition. For all but two days of the year, Bai Yun (White Cloud) and Gao Gao (Big Big) lead separate lives, gnawing on bamboo and taking long naps in pens far apart, much as wild pandas — naturally solitary creatures — would hide from each other in mountain forests. But when Bai Yun enters her brief fertile periods, zookeepers make sure Gao Gao is there, sniffing her through a perforated gate zookeepers call the "howdy door" until her chirps and bleats indicate she's ready to get down to business. "For 363 days a year they don't want to have anything to do with each other," said Ron Swaisgood, co-head of the zoo's panda research unit.
Other optional headlines for this story:
Panda Country gets the relationship thing right.
Pandas don't have to put up with their significant others saying they'll clean up their clothes in the bathroom and then not doing it.
Pandas like their own space.
Guy Pandas have plenty of time to play video games.
Pandas can take up the whole bed if they wanna.
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Monday, November 26, 2007
The AP does my work for me
Posted by Cutcha at 12:47 PM
Labels: Baby Panda, Bai Yun, Gao Gao, Mating, Ron Swaisgood, San Diego Zoo
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