I'm sad to report today that watching panda pornography didn't excite the two pandas enough for them to engage in kinky panda sex. Perhaps the porn built unrealistic expectations for the male panda and the girl panda didn't match his kinky panda fantasies?! Maybe they should have given the girl panda some breast implants and included another girl panda into the mix. [edit by Sandra - or maybe the girl panda doesn't need to change her body, which is fine the way it is, to conform to some artificial panda porn ideal beauty standard.]
After panda porn failed to spark amour, Thai zoo authorities turned Monday to artificial insemination in the hope of impregnating their lone female giant panda.Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand inseminated Lin Hui with semen from her cage-mate, Chuang Chuang, on Monday morning and will repeat the procedure on Tuesday. The artificial insemination is a last ditch effort to get Lin Hui pregnant, after videos of pandas having sex failed to entice Chuang Chuang into mating with his partner.
Comments
how bizarre. but is it surprising that seeing other pandas mating doesn't actually inspire this un-enamored duo? seems too anthropocentric - we're expecting too much from a social influence on mating that i'm not sure that pandas have. while observational learning works in plenty of contexts, i don't think the problem rests in these pandas not knowning what to do. it's a pretty automatic, basic behavior that's necessary for survival - if it was a difficult thing to master, i doubt many species would still be around.
lacking most of the factors contributing to human sexuality, many of which are socialized and/or include some cognitive judgement (note i said 'many'), i think panda mating is primarily and heavily dependent on brain/hormone interactions.
i'd say, stimulate their ventromedial hypothalamus. bet that'd do it.
Posted by: kate | April 4, 2007 10:28 AM
Having sex is a learned activity. I don't suppose the myth of Daphnis and Chloe is very scientific evidence, but what about The Blue Lagoon? If it takes human beings a leap of brilliance to figure out how to have coitus, imagine how daunting it must be for these poor oversized raccoons. You might as well ask them to solve a rubix cube.
Posted by: hunter | April 29, 2007 11:52 PM
"Kinky panda sex"........ Interesting way to put it i must say at the very least ^_^
Posted by: Kdebones | December 27, 2007 7:54 PM
Funny :)
Posted by: geciktirici | December 31, 2007 5:32 PM
Having sex is a learned activity.I agree this.
Posted by: feromon | December 31, 2007 5:33 PM