A begrudging Mazel Tov from DCist to the city of San Diego is in order, as the Associated Press reports that Bai Yun, the San Diego Zoo’s female panda, is definitely pregnant. Bai Yun has been put on “24-hour birth watch” after officials detected a fetus and fetal heartbeat through ultrasound images on July 18. More tests confirmed the pregnancy and the zoo made an official announcement yesterday.

As you’ll no doubt recall, Mei Xiang, the National Zoo’s female panda, was artificially inseminated earlier this year by Gao Gao, San Diego’s male panda, much to our (fabricated for the sake of humor) horror. But when her false pregnancy was revealed last month, it was with a mixture of sadness and relief that we reacted to the news — sure, we would have loved to have a new panda cub, but at least we weren’t getting some half-San Diegan bastard who would spend all his time surfing and trying to get that perfect tan. Tian Tian’s sperm was good enough for Tai Shan, and it’ll be good enough for the next adorable panda cub we’re blessed with as well.

But now, we might just have to face facts. It looks like Gao Gao may actually be some kind of superpanda, having now fathered three of Bai Yun’s cubs with his awesomely potent sperm. Dare we hope that it’s just because Bai Yun is such a tramp? Sigh. We cannot stoop that low. You win this round, San Diego. But don’t think you’ve seen the last of us. We’ll get you if it’s the last thing we do!

Photo by cowbellemoo