The two Chinese pandas, that is on loan from China to Denmark, has had difficulty mating the last four times Copenhagen Zoo has tried. This year they have decided to take a new approach.
A female panda is only ovulating one or two days out of a year. It has therefor turned into quite an event when the two pandas Mao Sun and Xing is put together every year to mate. The Copenhagen Zoo have had the pandas since 2019 and there still haven’t been a successful mating.
Earlier the pandas have been put together in an outdoor area, where visitors of the Zoo could also observe them approaching each other. This year it will not be possible for visitors to observe the mating ritual. Only the permanent staff will have access to the pandas.
“We always hope that we will succeed, but it is hard to say. However, we are hopeful considering it has been a bit better every year, and now we are trying out a new approach that vi know have worked other places,” says Rasmus Pedersen a zoo keeper at Copenhagen Zoo.
The purpose of excluding the visitors from the pandas is to make it easier for the pandas to only focus on each other during the mating ritual. It is expected that the female panda has been ovulating between last Friday and this Saturday ,12 April 2024.
The pandas are on loan to Denmark from Chine for 15 years.
Source: B.T
