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January 04, 2007
Panda-monium!
The good news: China has 30 new pandas after a "baby boom" last year. The bad news: most were born to unwed panda mothers.
Kudos to CNN.com for their innovative headline: Baby pandas! Baby pandas! Baby pandas! Long, but to the point.
According to the story, one of the reasons pandas are endangered is that they just aren't that into mating. CNN says:
Giant pandas have a very low fertility rate because they are sexually inactive. Female pandas become pregnant only once a year and deliver two cubs at most each time.
The fertility of captive giant pandas is even lower because they do not move much, experts said.
Imagine that... an animal so lethargic it's only barely passing its genes onto the next generation. That's a level of laziness that even I respect.
An interesting fact about the panda: until the late 1950s, researchers though the giant bears were simply overweight zebras. True story.
Posted by Greg Sidor at January 4, 2007 05:14 AM