A giant panda in China staged a fake pregnancy, tricking staff at a panda breeding center in China.
The fake pregnancy caused the cancellation of the first ever live broadcast of a giant panda giving birth to an offspring that was being planned.
The six-year-old giant panda, named Ai Hin, may have staged a fake pregnancy to be able to receive extra attention from the breeding staff, including extra rations of food.
According to workers at the Chengdu Breeding Research Center in the Sichuana province of China, Ai Hin showed signs of being pregnant last month.
However, the giant panda's behavior and physical conditions returned to the normal, non-pregnant state upon Ai Hin's transfer to an air-conditioned room that allowed her to have 24-hour care.
Ai Hin greatly enjoyed the added attention and extra food that the staff was giving her, before the employees found out that the giant panda was playing tricks on them.
"They receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life," said Chengdu Breeding Research Center employee Wu Kongju.
According to state news agency for China Xinhua, giant pandas may continue to show signs of pregnancy after realizing that those signs are the reasons for better treatment from the staff that take care of them.
Ai Hin reportedly had less of an appetite, lower mobility and a sudden surge of hormones, which are symptoms of pregnancy.
The natural habitat of the giant panda is the mountainous regions of southwest China. However, the black-and-white bears have a very low reproduction rate, which coupled with other factors such as illegal poaching and habitat loss, is causing a huge decline on the panda population.
China only has around 1,600 panda bears living out in the wild, and 300 panda bears currently living in captivity such as in breeding centers.
Breeding centers such as the Chengdu Breeding Research Center aim to aid the panda bears in their reproduction, to spur growth and foster the recovery of the dwindling panda population.
However, according to Xinhua, currently only 24 percent of female giant pandas living in captivity are giving birth, which is nowhere near the rate needed for the recovery of the panda population.
A female giant panda in Edinburgh zoo, however, recently experienced a real pregnancy through artificial insemination. However, the panda, named Tian Tian, unfortunately lost the cub in the later stages of the pregnancy.
Tian Tian was again artificially inseminated this year, with the latest reports revealing that the female panda may give birth to her cub soon.
