For some time now, workers in China’s panda breeding program have been wearing panda costumes when dealing with orphaned cubs. The theory was that it helps the youngsters feel more at home with real pandas when returned to the wild. Ridiculous as it may sound, they think it works.
Now, in a classic case of turnabout is fair play, keepers in Sichuan province say that Ai Hin, a six-year-old female panda has been faking pregnancy.
She had been scheduled to be the star of the widely-promoted first-ever live broadcast of the birth of a panda cub, but the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre announced yesterday that they were calling it off. Ai Hin is not, and never was, pregnant.
They think she faked the pregnancy because, according to panda expert Wu Kongju,
“After showing prenatal signs, the 'mothers-to-be' are moved into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care. They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.”
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