Zoos in Mexico, San Diego Plan to Breed Pandas
The San Diego Zoo will work with a Mexican counterpart to breed endangered giant pandas in captivity, authorities said.
The zoo’s Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species has signed a first-time agreement with the Chapultepec Zoo to artificially inseminate a panda there.
In the next few weeks, if China approves, San Diego Zoo researchers will deliver sperm from their male panda, Shi Shi, to inseminate one of three females at the Mexican facility.
The San Diego Zoo has a male and a female panda, which are on 12-year loan from China but have not reproduced. Mexico’s zoo has four pandas but they are not being bred to one another because they are siblings.
There are about 120 giant pandas in captivity around the world, and most have failed to reproduce. At the same time, the animals’ native habitat is fast disappearing.
“Right now, the outlook for this species is gloomy,” said Don Lindburg, panda expert for the San Diego Zoo.
Only 1,000 of the pandas remained in China’s forests a decade ago. Since then, nearly half their habitat has been claimed by humans, he said.
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