Joy as pandas mate at French zoo

Female pandas are only fertile for between 24 and 48 hours a year

The pair mated eight time on Saturday (AFP via Getty Images)

A pair of giant pandas, who are currently living in a zoo in France, have spent the weekend mating, raising hopes that this could give rise to a rare panda offspring.

The female is currently on loan from China and is known as Huan Huan. She was “put in contact” eight times with male panda Yuan Zi at the weekend. This is according to the Beauval zoo in central France, where the event happened on Saturday.

Female pandas are rarely fertile, only between 24 and 48 hours a year and when they are living in the wild, tend to give birth once every couple of years.

However, living in captivity means that this window of opportunity sometimes shrinks even further. This is because male pandas can appear to lose interest in the act or, having spent their life in captivity, lack practice and do not know how to perform.

Last week, the French zoo noticed that Huan Huan was behaving rather differently to normal. According to Le Parisien she was eating less bamboo than usual and was marking her sent on the ground. 

Following a few “hormonal tests,” the zoo was able to calculate that she would be fertile on Saturday, meaning that the race was on to find her a mate.

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Male panda, Yuan Zi, was introduced to her and the couple of pandas became “rather active.” The zoo reported that the male panda was “more at ease with the approach and the mating than in previous years.” His partner Huan Huan, who was in heat, was “very interested” said AFP.

In spite of the weekend’s activities, there is little guarantee that Huan Huan will fall pregnant, even after several rounds of mating. All will be revealed within two weeks, which is the amount of time it takes to detect a pregnancy in a panda.

That said, sometimes pandas experience pseudo-pregnancies, where they fail to produce an embryo, which could mean that the amorous affair does not result in a panda cub.

The team said they felt the performance “was rather good,” noting that Yuan Zi had improved since compared to previous attempts, reported AFP.

Beauval zoo reported that during the act, the female made “high-pitched sounds,” while the male made “more husky ones.” This apparently helped them to keep in rhythm.

As a final touch, the team decided to artificially inseminate Huan Huan during the night. This happened using a brief anesthetic as well as the help of German specialists who flew in specially for the operation.

Huan Huan gave birth in 2017 to the first panda born in France, Yuan Meng. This occurred following artificial insemination and the young panda is due to be sent to China later this year to join the panda population there.