Photo by mosley.brian

If we could somehow justify using emoticons in our stories, there’d be a big, weeping frowny face right about here.

Officials at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo say they confirmed late Tuesday that female giant panda Mei Xiang is not really pregnant. Mei’s recent hormonal surge was just another in a series of false pregnancies that she’s experienced over the last few years.

Sigh.

With no new panda cub in sight, the fate of the National Zoo’s pandas is now in a bit of limbo. Both Mei Xiang and the zoo’s male panda, Tian Tian, are scheduled to be returned to China later this year. While zoo officials are hoping to negotiate to extend the pair’s stay, a new cub would have gone a long way in making sure they stay put for the time being. There’s no telling now whether these particular pandas might be called back home. If that happened, the National Zoo would likely get new pandas.

For now, zookeepers expect Mei Xiang to return to normal, hormonally and behaviorally, rather quickly, so they went ahead and reopened the Giant Panda Habitat at 10 a.m. this morning. The habitat had been closed since Friday in the event that Mei Xiang did give birth.