Panda fakes pregnancy to get round-the-clock care in Taiwan

Experts claim Yuan Yuan, the star attraction at Taipei Zoo, noticed she was provided with better living conditions during her last pregnancy and so acted in the same way.

Yuan, one of a pair given to Taiwan as gifts by the Chinese mainland, had shown signs of pregnancy such as loss of appetite, thickening of the uterus and increased fecal progesterone concentration since June 11.

Now, a Zoo spokesman has told local media that it is believed Yuan Yuan faked the pregnancy after realising that she received greater care when she gave birth to baby Yuan Zai in July 2013.

The symptoms of pregnancy are already beginning to return to normal appetite levels and behavior, the spokesman said.

According to a report in Huffington Post, pregnant pandas are moved to into ” single rooms with air conditioning” and are fed more fruits and bamboo and provided “round the clock care”.

Staff at Taipei Zoo said that mothers-to-be are normally relocated to more comfortable quarters during the gestation period. Chinese researchers suggested that Yuan Yuan adapted her behaviour after witnessing the special treatment given to other expectant mothers.

Last year, officials at a breeding centre in Sichuan province, China, believed a six-year-old female called Ai Hin was also trying to deceive her keepers. The breeders had even planned a live-broadcast of her birth which had to be cancelled when they found out it was all a bigger sham than Liu Xiang’s marriage. But Wu Kongju, an expert of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, says some pandas have been able to game the system without the hormonal element present. Their names create the phrase ‘”uan yuan” in Chinese, which means “reunion”.