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