With the birth of twin pandas last week to a mother named Yo Yo in the Wolong Panda Reserve, captive pandas have had their most fecund year ever. Panda keepers have now
coaxed 19 births out of captive animals in 2010
, according to China Daily, breaking the old record of 18, set in 2006.
Besides programs of diet and exercise, such as the one applied to the
substandard, American-bred Tai Shan
to make him more fit for reproduction, Chinese experts have also relied on artificial insemination and erotica to get the notoriously unproductive animals to perpetuate their species:
Previous efforts to encourage the poor breeders to mate included showing uninitiated males “panda porn”, which Chinese scientists have deemed a success and is being used at zoos overseas.
