Privacy puts pandas in the mood

When the lights went out and everyone disappeared, giant pandas Ying Ying and Le Le stunned zookeepers at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park by finally mating for the first time in 10 years.

Coincidence? Amy Cheung, from the park’s public affairs department, likes to think so. She stresses that the park had closed many times before “to minimise human disturbance” without any such aphrodisiac effect – but there is good reason to believe these clumsy bedmates were enjoying some rare privacy.

Although Ying Ying failed to conceive, Ai Bao and Le Bao at Everland amusement park in South Korea were more successful, giving birth to a 7oz pink nugget in July – a first for the country. There was more good news at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington DC, where 22-year-old Mei Xiang became America’s oldest giant panda to give birth. The conception was a little less natural (she was artificially inseminated) but it was a miracle that she managed to see the pregnancy to full term.

“Given her age, she had less than a 1 per cent chance of giving birth,” says Brandie Smith, the zoo’s deputy director. A Giant Panda Cam has been set up to give viewers a closer look at the cub when travel returns to normal.

Female pandas come into heat just once a year, in March and April for a few days – which happened to be the start of lockdown last year. Who knows whether the absence of crowds had some bearing on the panda baby boom.

Whatever the reason, chief veterinarian Don Neiffer agrees that the results have created a feelgood factor. “In the middle of a pandemic, this is a joyful moment we can all get excited about.”

Sarah Marshall

Ahhhh! Ai Bao and her cub at Everland