Mei Xiang during last year’s artificial insemination. (Photo by National Zoo)

Spring is moving in (slowly), the cherry blossoms are sprouting, and everyone is shaking off their winter habits. At the National Zoo, that means one thing:

Panda sex time!

The National Zoo announced yesterday that its giant pandas, Tian “Weakly Loaded” Tian and Mei Xiang, are “exhibiting behaviors indicating that they are ready to breed.” In the coming week, the zoo’s panda staff will determine if they can get Mei Xiang, who is showing elevated hormone levels, pregnant again.

The zoo will attempt to get the pandas to mate naturally, but assuming that Tian Tian is clueless and flawed as ever, the zoo’s veterinarians and reproductive scientists will repeat last year’s artificial insemination process. And it will be tweeted, the zoo promises.

With Mei Xiang currently in estrus, the zoo is closing the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat, though the bears might be visible from an overlook on the Asia Trail. Zoo staff will observe the bears over the next few days, and if no natural breeding occurs, they will then schedule an insemination procedure.

Last year’s insemination—using “vintage sperm”—was ultimately successful in impregnating Mei Xiang, who gave birth last September 16, though the cub died about six days later from lung and liver damage.

For now, the bears are most observable on the National Zoo’s panda cam. But when the insemination begins, the camera will be turned off. Don’t worry, though, the zoo is promising many updates about breeding efforts using the Twitter hashtag #pandaAI. Perhaps it’ll even live-tweet the whole process again!