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Ying Ying and Le Le mated naturally for the first time in a decade at Ocean Park in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Giant pandas Ying Ying and Le Le mate for the first time at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park

  • The black-and-white pandas mate at the age of 14 on Monday after years of repeated failure and a miscarriage
  • Signs of pregnancy, including hormonal fluctuations and behavioural changes, may be observed in Ying Ying earliest in late June
Ocean Park

Two giant pandas at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park have moved a step closer to breeding, after successfully mating for the first time on Monday.

After repeated failures and a miscarriage in the past 10 years, Ying Ying and Le Le made the attempt during the ongoing mating season, between March and May, the park said.

The behaviour of the two 14-year-olds is seen as a breakthrough, as male and female giant pandas become sexually mature at the age of seven and five years respectively.

Signs of pregnancy, if any, are expected to be observed at the earliest in late June.

Ying Ying and Le Le arrived in Hong Kong in 2007. Photo: Ocean Park

“Since Ying Ying and Le Le’s arrival in Hong Kong in 2007 and attempts at natural mating since 2010, they unfortunately have yet to succeed until this year despite years of trial and learning,” Michael Boos, executive director of the park’s zoological operations and conservation, said.

“The successful natural mating process today is extremely exciting news for all of us, as the chance of pregnancy via natural mating is higher than by artificial insemination.”

In 2015, Ying Ying and Le Le joined a national programme in Wolong, Sichuan, the biggest panda reserve in mainland China, at which Ying Ying was mated with different pandas and also artificially while Le Le’s semen was used to artificially inseminate other pandas.

Ying Ying was soon confirmed as pregnant, but then miscarried, before several false alarms over the following years.

Hong Kong pandas Ying Ying and Le Le could be sent home to find new mates

Boos said the park would closely monitor Ying Ying’s hormonal levels and behavioural changes as the gestation period for giant pandas ranges between 72 and 324 days. Pregnancy could only be confirmed through an ultrasound scan 14 to 17 days before birth at the earliest.

The debt-ridden theme park has been closed to the public since January 26 to minimise the risk of the spread of the coronavirus.

“If the mating was successful, signs of pregnancy, including hormonal fluctuations and behavioural changes may be observed as early as late June. But there is always a chance Ying Ying could experience a pseudopregnancy,” Boos said.

Tourism lawmaker Yiu Si-wing welcomed “the good news” of the successful mating.

Ocean Park bailout plan ‘will help fund attraction’s revival’

“It gives us some hope when Hong Kong is clouded with so much negative news,” he said.

The park has tightened its belt, and is in the process of seeking a HK$10.6 billion (US$1.36 billion) funding boost from the government for a makeover.

It revealed in January that it only had about HK$400 million at hand, sufficient for operations until the end of this year. The park is also burdened with about HK$6 billion in debt.

Yiu urged the park to revise its funding plan as tourism was battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Ocean Park hopes for birth of panda cub
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