Two female pandas fertilized with semen from aged wild panda in NW China

XI'AN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Two female giant pandas have been artificially
fertilized with semen from a 21-year-old panda, the equivalent of 60 in human
years, said experts at a giant panda breeding base in northwest China's Shaanxi
Province on Wednesday.

The senior panda, Xiaoming, was a wild panda rescued by wild animal
preservationists in Shaanxi in 2007. He was blind from cataracts and suffered
from nephritis. He became the second giant panda to receive the cataract surgery
in China last December, which helped restored his eyesight.

"Xiaoming has been in good health and had become sexually frisky since
spring. We found 390 million sperm per milliliter of his semen, with 60 percent
of the sperm active for fertility," said Ma Qingyi, head of the veterinary
hospital with the Shaanxi Research Center of Rare Wild Animal Rescue and
Breeding.

Ma said Xiaoming's sperm vitality is as good as young pandas.

"Using sperm from a wild panda can be conducive in avoiding close breeding
among pandas in captivity," he said.

The expert said the fertilization rate of giant pandas is very low, which
is part of the reason for the animal's risk of extinction.

If the two female pandas, nine-year-old Zhu Zhu and six-year-old Yang Yang,
become pregnant, they could be expected to give birth in autumn, as pandas'
pregnancy lasts from 83 to 185 days.