Adelaide Zoo’s Bamboo Forest is closed as spring heralds breeding time for Australia’s only two Giant Pandas – but the pair will have to get down to business the old-fashioned way this year due to COVID-19.
Travel restrictions mean that a reproductive specialist from the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda is unable to travel to Adelaide this year, as was the case last year. Zoos SA will therefore focus solely on allowing ‘nature to take its course’ – and won’t be proceeding with its usual artificial insemination procedures.
“Our 15-year-old female Fu Ni and 16-year-old Wang Wang are both showing typical breeding season behaviours. It’s a very exciting time of year for us all as we wait with bated breath to see if they mate,” said Zoos SA CEO Elaine Bensted.
“Panda fertility is an extremely complex, delicate and short-lived window of opportunity to say the least. In fact, Fu Ni’s window of fertility lasts less than 48 hours and occurs only once a year.”
Dr Phil Ainsley, Adelaide Zoo Director, said it is so difficult for female bears to become pregnant and keep their cub through to birth that it is a reason they are vulnerable to extinction with less than 2,000 remaining in the wild.
All we can say then is: good luck!
