Giant Panda Fools Researchers, Fakes Pregnancy So That She Gets Preferential Treatment!

A Giant panda named Ai Hin might be the most intelligent panda that has ever lived. Why? The intelligent animal, currently lodged at The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, in Chengdu, China not only tricked scientists into believing that she was pregnant, she also made them arrange for her an elaborate live birth broadcast of her cubs that were never to come, according to a CNN report. And the reason why she did that is even more hilarious!

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, the panda was later found to be not pregnant at all. Ai Hin had faked her pregnancy! It is now believed that the panda faked her pregnancy only to receive special privileges that were bestowed upon female pandas who get pregnant at the center.

Ai Hin kris a six year old Panda that had earlier in the month of July started displaying typical signs of a Panda pregnancy. These included a change in her appetite, an increase in the levels of progestational hormones in her body. She had also started moving very less. Officials at the research center were overjoyed to see another panda being pregnant – mainly because of their status as an endangered species. However, the supposedly pregnant Ai Hin suddenly started acting like a normal panda again which left the researchers amazed.

According to experts, Ai Hin has displayed a behavior that is associated with early pregnancy. Pandas often see other female Pandas getting preferential treatment. This might have prompted Ai Hin to mimic the same so that she too received the same treatment.

According to Wu Kongju, an official from the at The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre;

“After showing prenatal signs, the ‘mothers-to-be’ are moved into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care. They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.”

Meanwhile, officials at the research center were left red-faced because they had announced that they would be live casting the birth of Ai Hin’s cubs – which never existed in the first place!

All said, there is a genuine reason why a pregnant panda is always good news. These rare creatures are fertile for only three days a year, and it is extremely rare for them to get pregnant in captivity. Even if they do get pregnant, the cubs are known to have very low rate of survival.

[Image Via Wikimedia Commons]