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National Zoo Panda Pregnancy Watch: Paternity Test Needed If Mei Xiang Gives Birth To Cub

Who's The Daddy?
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Mei Xiang, the female giant panda at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, eats breakfast Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. The zoo announced a $4.5 million gift Monday to fund its giant panda reproduction program for five more years. Donator and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is also co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, said in a news conference, "There are probably 10 million species on the face of the earth, and I doubt that any one of those species is more popular and more beloved than the giant panda." "Hopefully this will result in more pandas being born here," he said. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Mei Xiang, the female giant panda at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, eats breakfast Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. The zoo announced a $4.5 million gift Monday to fund its giant panda reproduction program for five more years. Donator and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is also co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, said in a news conference, "There are probably 10 million species on the face of the earth, and I doubt that any one of those species is more popular and more beloved than the giant panda." "Hopefully this will result in more pandas being born here," he said. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON -- If National Zoo giant panda Mei Xiang gets pregnant and gives birth to a cub this year, the zoo will run a paternity analysis to determine which of two male giant pandas is the father.

A Chinese veterinarian performed artificial insemination twice on 14-year-old Mei Xiang on March 30. For the first producedure, semen from the National Zoo's male panda Tian Tian was used; for the second, a mix of semen from Tian Tian and Gao Gao of the San Diego Zoo was used.

The National Zoo tweeted the insemination process using the hashtag #PandaAI.

Washingtonians will have to wait several months to find out whether the insemination took and Mei Xiang is pregnant. A panda pregnancy lasts 95 to 160 days.

Last year, Mei Xiang unexpectedly gave birth to a female cub who died after six days due to liver and lung problems. Her only other surviving cub, Tai Shan, was born at National Zoo in 2005 and relocated to China in 2010.

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