Male panda revealed as female by keeper

Panda lovers were shocked to learn on Wednesday that one of their beloved bears was not what they thought them to be.

Tan Jintao, the keeper of four-year-old giant panda He Ye at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the northern suburbs of Chengdu, Sichuan province, revealed to the panda's fans that he was actually a she.

In a video released by the base, Tan, a keeper well-known as Grandpa Tan among panda lovers, said, "Come here, He Ye and Hua Hua. Did you two sisters eat bamboo well when I was on a business trip for two days?"

Born in July 2020, Hua Hua is the twin sister of He Ye. Hua Hua is an online sensation because of her intelligence. She always obeys when her 52-year-old keeper summons her.

Because of Hua Hua's popularity, He Ye has also aroused public attention. The former sister and brother have instead become twin sisters.

According to an information officer at the base who asked to remain anonymous, the video was released to confirm He Ye is a female.

After He Ye was born, the cub's gender characteristics tended toward male. Because the cub peed in a certain way, appeared very lively and had a large stature, He Ye was identified as a male at that time, Tan says in the video.

"As He Ye is growing older, the male characteristics are not obvious. So we have invited experts to collect He Ye's biological samples and found out that He Ye is indeed a female," he said in the video.

The biological samples can be used for DNA analysis, said Zhang Guiquan, a senior panda expert with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

According to experts, the sex of giant pandas is the most difficult to determine among large mammals. Since newborn panda cubs weigh only about 100 grams, their sex organs are not obvious, so keepers sometimes make mistakes in sex judgment. It is widely believed to be very hard to determine the gender of a panda before it turns three.

According to media reports, Mei Lan, the father of He Ye, was once raised as a female panda.

Before his true sex was determined, Mei Lan was even arranged to date several male pandas. Mei Lan's sister Bao Lan was also judged to be male at birth, and only after an examination was it discovered that the sex was actually female.

In 2013, officials at Zoo Atlanta in the United States received surprising news regarding giant pandas Po, Mei Lun and Mei Huan. Po, then three years old, and twins Mei Lun and Mei Huan, then nearly five months old, were the offspring of Lun Lun, a female panda from the Chengdu base. DNA testing confirmed that all three bears who had originally been sexed as male were in fact female.

Prior to the time pandas are at least three years old, there are no obvious external clues as to their sex, the zoo said.