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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2005 
Mexican Panda Home After Failed Tokyo Love Match
 Catherine Bremer - Reuters
| | Mexican Panda Shuan Shuan tucks into her breakfast of bamboo leaves in her enclosure at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo, three days after returning from Japan where she was on loan in attempt to have her breed. (Photo: Andrew Winning) |
Mexico City - Mexican giant panda Shuan Shuan was back in her Mexico City enclosure on Thursday, jet-lagged and chewing glumly on a pile of bamboo leaves after failing to find passion with a suitor in a Tokyo zoo.
Shuan Shuan, 18 and born in Mexico, was flown back from Japan earlier this week, dashing hopes that a far eastern romance might get her pregnant, after attempts to spark chemistry with Beijing-born Ling Ling, 20, fizzled out.
"We couldn't get them to mate," said Mexico City zoo director Rafael Tinajero sadly.
The 1-1/2 year mating mission was part of a worldwide breeding program to try to bring pandas back from the brink of extinction. But Shuan Shuan and Ling Ling didn't hit it off.
"The thing is, pandas are solitary animals so you can't just put them in together," Tinajero said.
"First, you have to look for signs they'll be receptive to stroking or touching each other. They had contact through bars, so they could smell and touch one another but it wasn't the right moment. Ling Ling was scared of Shuan Shuan."
Shuan Shuan was on heat twice during her sojourn at Tokyo's Ueno zoo but Ling Ling seemed put off by the fact his new lady friend weighed 30 kg (66 lbs) more than him, Tinajero said.
Attempts at artificial insemination also failed.
There are only around 1,000 of the much-loved black and white bears left in the wild in southern China. A handful of zoos in the world have breeding programs but costs can be high as China charges more than most can afford to rent a "stud".
Mexico has three giant pandas, all females, but is struggling to get them pregnant. The task is made harder by the fact females go on heat for just a couple of days each year.
The first panda born in captivity outside China - the cub of two pandas China gave Mexico in 1975, Shuan Shuan was sleeping off her jetlag on Thursday, lolling about on her bed.
"It makes us sad, but what can we do?" said her keeper, Joel Frias, as he prepared her lunch - a stew of rice, mashed apple, grated carrots, chicken bits and chopped nopal cactus.
Keepers hoped romance would blossom between Shuan Shuan and Ling Ling after the pair seemed to flirt - urinating, sniffing and eyeing each other - on past trips Ling Ling made to Mexico to provide sperm for artificial insemination.
But having both been raised alone, neither seemed eager to make room for the other in its cage, Tinajero said.
"We're just glad she's back," he said. "And she's delighted to be home, in her own country with her own people." |
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