Pet breeding experts in France are holding their breath, crossing their fingers and hoping for 2 pleased events – as job is under method to advice a panda and a white rhino come to be pregnant.
There are merely 2 pandas in France, at the Zoo Beauval in Loir-et-Cher, merely south of Blois, where keepers are sustaining an eagle eye on the subject of seven year-old Huan Huan, that unexpectedly came in to period in February.
Unfortunately, as quickly as she came in to heat, her mate Yuan Zi (likewise seven) failed to respond so, since female pandas are just fertile for a couple of days each year, an emergency group of panda specialists flew in from China in order to inseminate Huan Huan artificially.
After mating, pandas enter a point out called embryonic diapause which can easily last for numerous months, throughout which time the female can easily re-take in a foetus she is carrying. It is believed this mechanism protects female pandas from unfavourable breeding conditions.
Once this phase ends, if the female is still pregnant, she will certainly provide birth about 6 weeks later to a couple of quite small, quite unsteady cubs.
But throughout embryonic diapause, it is quite hard to figure out whether or not a female is pregnant. So even though vets at Beauval are testing Huan Huan’s urine day-to-day to monitor her reproductive hormone levels, they can not tell for sure if she is expecting.
Meanwhile Beth, a female white rhino from the Africa Alive Zoo near Lowestoft in East Anglia has actually been transported by sea to the Cerza Zoo in Normandy, which currently has actually a male, Chris, and 2 females, Sutu and Rosy. They likewise have actually a pair of Indian rhinos.
The need for this trip? It is all of portion of the European Breeding Programme. In the UK Beth has actually not revealed considerably interest in mating and keepers believe the cold climate is not helping. A little Normandy sunshine, they hope, may help.
Their Indian rhino is currently pregnant, so all of fingers are crossed that a preference of the excellent life in France could possibly draw Beth to provide maternity a try.
