If you have never had the chance to see a 'live' panda cub being born, you may get to see one very soon. Dear Mei Xiang, of the National Zoo, is very close to possibly giving birth to a panda cub or twins even. Why do I say possibly? You see, giant pandas experience a pseudo pregnancy. They experience all the signs and symptoms of being pregnant, but do not conceive. This is exactly what happened last year.
Reading over the National Zoo link that I gave you above is a little hard to understand. The zoo's veterinarians talks about her hormone levels, urinary progestin concentrations, and other scientific mumbo jumbo, but these very methods enable them to try and predict when a panda is most likely to give birth. They regularly collect urine specimens and do sonograms to obtain this information. They compare this years to the previous years data to better understand, in this instance, how Mei is coming along. Here is a video interview, Fox News did last year while covering Mei's possible pregnancy.
Best part of all of this is you can watch Mei yourself on the National Zoo webcam, which is now monitoring her movements on a constant basis. One thing you will see is Mei spends most of her time in a small area, that is just off from her regular enclosure. It is referred to as her den area. Pandas will give birth in hollowed-out trees or caves. Areas that are small and protected, to insure they can keep their cub warm and safe from the elements and predators. So, even though Mei has access to a much larger area to give birth in during this time, instinctively, she chooses a small confined area.
Mei will drag in bamboo into this area, and shred it up into small pieces like a nest for the cub to lay on. It is really interesting to observe, even though Mei was captive born, (born in captivity at the Wolong Center for Giant Pandas) she still displays the same instinctive behavior as a giant panda in the wild.
Just to give you a tip, Tai Shan her first cub, was born at 3:41 am, EST. If she does conceive this year it will be her second cub.
Stay tuned, I will keep you updated on Mei Xiang's status. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
