| They're cute and cuddly but sadly they can't get it | | | | "Barely a quarter of adult pandas in captivity are |
| up! Yes, Virginia, even pandas suffer from impotence | | | | breeding, and the few that do are not contributing to |
| and nothing it seems can help these furry animals | | | | the survival of their wild relatives," added BBC News |
| mate. Not even Viagra! | | | | environment correspondent Alex Kirby. |
| This was reported by Chinese officials who said that | | | | In the 1990s, authorities experimented with Chinese |
| the creature's innate modesty may prove to be its | | | | medicine to boost the pandas' dwindling sex drive. |
| undoing. Authorities are alarmed that the shy pandas | | | | Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong Nature Reserve |
| may soon be extinct unless they have sex soon. | | | | in the central province of Sichuan, said the herbal |
| For years, scientists have struggled to boost the | | | | medicine worked but it also made the males |
| dwindling panda population that now numbers less | | | | hot-tempered that the experiment had to be |
| than a thousand. Poaching and loss of habitat have | | | | discontinued. |
| greatly reduced the number of pandas worldwide. | | | | Scientists then turned to the anti-impotence drug |
| The few that inhabit China face extinction due to | | | | Viagra, hoping it would have the same effect in |
| their celibate nature. | | | | pandas. Pandas normally mate for about 30 seconds |
| "Pandas, which have relatively low fertility rates even | | | | and Viagra could reportedly extend that to 20 |
| in the wild, lose virtually all interest in sex once they | | | | minutes. |
| are in captivity," according to BBC News. | | | | Unfortunately, that didn't work either. |
| Researchers are at a loss to explain this strange | | | | Sixteen-year-old male panda Zhuang Zhuang (Chinese |
| behavior. Some say captivity prevents them from | | | | for "Strong Strong") took the drug but nothing |
| indulging in elaborate mating rituals. Others believe | | | | happened. Wang Pengyan, deputy director of the |
| they are not interested in mating with partners | | | | reserve, said he had no intention of giving Viagra to |
| chosen for them. Still, others say all they want is a | | | | other pandas although others believe Zhuang Zhuang |
| little privacy and the attention they're getting from | | | | wasn't a good candidate. |
| the public is not good for them. | | | | "You can't say Viagra has no results on pandas. We |
| "Who would want to mate in front of an audience?" | | | | used the wrong panda. That panda basically has no |
| asked Sally Nicholson of the World Wildlife Fund | | | | capability," said Guo Feng, a scientific researcher at |
| (WWF) on captive pandas' aversion to sex. | | | | Wolong. |