Mei Xiang. Photo by Daniel.Techie @ 127.Ø.Ø.1Oh, Mei Xiang, you absolute heartbreaker. Staff at Smithsonian’s National Zoo confirmed late yesterday their adult female giant panda is in fact not pregnant, and was instead experiencing another one of her pseudopregnancies. This also happened last summer. And the summer before that.
The Zoo’s Panda House has been closed for several weeks while National Zoo scientists monitored Mei Xiang’s hormone levels and behavior and conducted ultrasound exams in order to determine if she was pregnant. Based on her hormone cycle and the fact that no fetus has been observed, Zoo officials have gone ahead and called this another pseudopregnancy, marking the fifth such experience for Mei Xiang. She gave birth to Tai Shan, her only cub, in 2005.
So it’s another sad day for panda lovers in Washington. After HBO canceled Screen on the Green, we had really been pinning our hopes for an awesome summer on the possibility of a brand new little baby panda to obsess over. Instead, we’ll once again have to suffer through August without a new star on the panda cam. So sad.
The Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat will reopen today at 10 a.m.
