机智熊猫为改善生活 假装怀孕

Panda may have faked pregnancy for more buns, bamboo

A giant panda slated to be the star of the first-ever live broadcast of the birth of panda cubs has lost the role -- after it was discovered the bear is not pregnant after all, Chinese state media reported.

Not only was it a phantom pregnancy, but zookeepers suspect the panda, Ai Hin, may have been faking it to improve her quality of life, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding told Xinhua on Monday.

Ai Hin, age 6, had shown signs of pregnancy, including a change in appetite, moving less and an increase in progestational hormone in July, according to Xinhua.

But after almost two months, she began acting normally again, zookeepers said.

Experts say pandas sometimes carry on the behaviors associated with early pregnancy after noticing that they get preferential treatment, the news agency reported.

"After showing prenatal signs, the 'mothers-to-be' are moved into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care," Wu Kongju, an expert at the Chengdu base, is quoted as saying.

"They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life."

The birth of Ai Hin's supposed cub and its progress in its early days, from its first cries to acquiring its distinctive black-and-white fur, were due to be broadcast online to panda lovers in China and worldwide.

Giant pandas are notoriously reluctant to breed in captivity and pseudo-pregnancies are common.

The female is fertile for no more than three days a year, and the time span for a pregnancy is from 80 to 200 days, according to the Chengdu base. Scientists will closely monitor behavioral and physiological signs, but it's often a guessing game.

Even if a pregnancy proves genuine, baby pandas have very low survival rates. According to the Chengdu base, only a third to a half of pandas born in Chinese captivity manage to survive past infancy.

There was good news last month, though, when a panda gave birth to a healthy set of triplets in China's Chimelong Safari Park in the southern city of Guangzhou. The cubs are thought to be the only living panda triplets in the world.

Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland thinks its panda, Tian Tian, could be the next to produce a cub, based on the latest scientific tests, but there are no guarantees.

"It is very likely that we will not know 100% if Tian Tian is pregnant until she gives birth," Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said earlier this month.

As few as 1,600 giant pandas survive in the mountain forests of central China, according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo in Washington. More than 300 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, most of them in China.

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一只大熊猫按计划本能成为第一个被直播生产幼崽的明星熊猫，但没能成功。因为人们发现这只熊猫根本没有怀孕。

据官方的新华社8月25日报道，成都大熊猫繁育研究基地表示，这不仅仅是假想怀孕，动物园管理员怀疑大熊猫“爱浜”为了改善自己的生活质量而伪装自己怀孕了。今年7月，6岁的“爱浜”表现出了一系列怀孕的症状：食欲变化、活动减少，且孕激素升高。

但两个月之后，它就表现得很正常了，动物园管理员说。

专家称，大熊猫有时注意到表现出早期怀孕症状就能得到更好的待遇时，它们就会装作怀孕了，新华社报道。

新华社引用成都大熊猫基地专家吴孔菊(音)的话说，“一旦显示出产前的症状，将要做母亲的大熊猫就会被移到有空调的单间里，并享受24小时悉心照顾。”

“这些怀孕的大熊猫能获得更多的点心、水果和竹子。一些聪明的熊猫利用这一点来改善自己的生活质量。”

如果“爱浜”生出了幼崽，幼崽的早期生活，从第一声啼哭到长出典型的黑白色皮毛，都本应该在网上向中国和全世界的喜欢熊猫的人直播。

众所周知，大熊猫不愿意在封闭的环境中产崽。所以伪装怀孕的情况很普遍。

根据成都大熊猫基地的说法，雌性大熊猫一年排卵时间不超过3天，而怀孕的时间跨度则从80天到200天都有。科学家们紧密的关注着大熊猫的行为和生理特征，但很多时候还是碰运气。

即使一只熊猫真的怀孕了，熊猫幼崽的存活率也非常低。据成都大熊猫基地统计，在中国大熊猫基地出生的大熊猫只有三分之一到一半度过了幼年期。

不过上个月有好消息，在周国南部城市广州长隆野生动物园，一只大熊猫生出了健康的三胞胎。它们被认为是世界上唯一活着的熊猫三胞胎。

根据最近的科学检测，苏格兰爱丁堡动物园认为园中的熊猫天天可能是下一个要产崽的熊猫，但并不一定。

苏格兰皇家动物学会的大熊猫专家伊恩?瓦伦汀(Iain Valentine)在本月初表示：“不到天天生崽之时，我们不能百分之百确定它怀孕了。”

据在华盛顿的史密森学会的国家动物园统计，在中国中部的山林里，只有1600只大熊猫存活。全世界共有300多只大熊猫生活在动物园和大熊猫繁育中心里，大部分在中国。