Pandas turned on to sex education
( 2002-06-27 13:08 ) (7 )

China is to show captive adolescent pandas videos of other pandas mating as part of a "sex education" plan to rouse the famously reluctant animals into reproducing, state media said Thursday.

Male pandas are being shown the X-rated films every morning and evening at the China Giant Panda Breeding and Research Centre in Wolong, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The method has been tried in the past + it was attempted at Wolong in April 2000 -- d is among a number of plans mooted to goad captive examples of the desperately rare species into action.

Now, what Xinhua called "sex education lessons" are becoming standard for all male pandas entering adulthood at the centre.

The latest participant was Didi, who was placed in front of a television set on Tuesday, his sixth birthday, to learn the facts of life.

"Didi seemed to like his gift immensely, as his eyes were glued to the screen while it showed a couple of giant pandas mating," Xinhua reported.

Experts are optimistic the scheme will work.

"Through this kind of sex education, we expect to arouse the sexual instincts of giant pandas, enhance their natural mating ability and raise their reproductive capacity," Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong centre told the agency.

"We won't use drugs, such as Viagra, to help giant pandas increase their sexual desire and capacity. We believe this can be achieved through sex education and physical exercise," added Zhang Guiquan, an official with the China Giant Panda Protection Center.

Such measures have become necessary after researchers witnessed generations of giant pandas, which have relatively low fertility rates even in the wild, lose virtually all interest in sex once captive.

More than 60 percent of male pandas in zoos or sanctuaries exhibit no sexual desire at all, Xinhua said, while just a tenth of them will mate naturally.

Thus the vast majority of panda births in captivity are the result of artificial insemination.

Captive births are vital to boost numbers of the extremely rare animal, of which there are only about 1,000 left in the wild, mostly in Sichuan.

Researchers at Wolong hope this will soon change. Ximeng, an inhabitant of the centre, completed his sex education programme last year and is now a father, the Xinhua report said.

"Didi seems to be heading in this direction. After receiving intensive sex education, he has exhibited a stronger libido than Ximeng," it added.