San Diego Zoo Panda Undergoes Artificial Insemination
Zookeepers Give Pregnancy 50-50 Odds
San Diego Zoo officials are cautiously optimistic that giant panda Bai Yun is on her way to another pregnancy.
Bai Yun was artifically inseminated Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and zoo officials say the chances of success are a little better than 50-50.
But Donald Lindburg, head of the zoo's panda team, said that the team hopes the news "does not raise unrealistic expectations" that she will actually give birth.
Two years ago, Bai Yun was successfully inseminated; she gave birth in August 1999 to Hua Mei (pictured, right), the first panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990.
The sperm donor this year is Hua Mei's father and fellow San Diego Zoo resident Shi Shi.
"We have the same strong feeling of confidence as we did in 1999," Lindburg said. Both then and now, he said, the procedure was marked by a "good" semen sample, "timing that was right on target" and the correct positioning by catheter of the semen in
Bai Yun's reproductive tract.
There are seven pandas currently in the United States: three in San Diego, and two each in the Washington and Atlanta zoos.
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PANDA INFO
BAI YUN & BABY
The sperm donor this year is Hua Mei's father and fellow San Diego Zoo resident Shi Shi.
"We have the same strong feeling of confidence as we did in 1999," Lindburg said. Both then and now, he said, the procedure was marked by a "good" semen sample, "timing that was right on target" and the correct positioning by catheter of the semen in
Bai Yun's reproductive tract.
There are seven pandas currently in the United States: three in San Diego, and two each in the Washington and Atlanta zoos.
- February 23, 2001: Baby Panda Separated From Mother
- February 23, 2001: San Diego's Favorite Panda On Her Own
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