Memphis Zoo tries to realign Ya Ya's annual estrus
For a few years now Ya Ya, the Memphis Zoo’s female giant panda, has been a little off. She goes into her annual estrus (fertile cycle) during the holiday season. That’s months before pandas are typically fertile, which is for only a few days between March and May.
Zoo officials think that may be why Ya Ya has been unable to carry a cub to term. So for several months specialists at the zoo have been trying to realign Ya Ya’s cycle.
“She’s had a pregnancy or two in the past that haven’t gone well,” said Matt Thompson, curator of mammals. “One thing we can point to as a possible factor is that she’s gone into estrus at the wrong time of the year. We really would like to get her cycling when she’s supposed to.”
They’ve dimmed the lights in the panda night house and turned down the thermostat.
“We realized we had some emergency lights inside that were putting out a little more light than it should, and we’ve adjusted that,” Thompson said.
The light and warmth may have signaled spring to Ya Ya’s system, sending her into estrus at the wrong time. It’s the same for the warm temperatures indoors, that for her might mimic spring.
“We talk to the Chinese, too,” Thompson said. “In fact, we submitted our plan to change her environment and they certainly thought that it sounded appropriate.”
The Memphis Zoo is the only U.S. zoo with pandas that has not produced a cub. Pandas can reproduce until the age of 20 and she’s not yet 11.
“She’s coming into her prime right now,” Thompson said. “We positively think that she’ll be able to have a baby and hold on to that baby.”
And if Ya Ya does go into estrus at the wrong time of the year, they’ve frozen bamboo shoots, young vegetation pregnant pandas would normally eat instead of mature bamboo.
“She’s healthy, she’s eating well and she’s certainly eating her natural diet,” Thompson said. “So hopefully we’ll have some success this time.”
Source: Commercial Appeal
