Sep 01, 2014 06:30 PM EDT
Panda Bear "Fakes" Her Pregnancy

Sometimes animals really are the smartest ones in the room. This Panda Bear had a "phantom" pregnancy and they only discovered it before a live show that was going to film her having the cubs.

Ai Hin is the name of this six-year-old bear that was staying at a Chinese Zoo and "expected" babies.

It turns out that because of this thought that the Panda was going to have cubs, the Zoo had organized filming the birth and have televised the first birth of a Panda ever seen on TV. It was going to be a magnificent moment, until the zookeepers realized that the birth was never going to happen. Ai Hin was not pregnant.

Apparently, the reason for doing this is that Ai Hin realized that when pregnant, bears get more bamboo to eat, so the attention didn't seem bad.

How is it that Ai Hin knew this? She did present an early stage of pregnancy. Her appearance changed a bit and her hormonals level as well. That tends to happen to animals that have a "phantom" pregnancy. They appear fatter and perhaps with fatigue, but they might actually not be pregnant and these things tend to simply happen.

After the Zoo people thought she was expecting, they moved her to an air conditioned private room, so that she would be safe, with a good atmosphere and her cubs could be born the healthiest possible. Also, because she would have to be fed for more than one, the bamboo quantity multiplied.

Still, even if she wasn't pregnant in the end, she could have also not known. Many animals fall into the pretense without actually acknowledging that they are doing it.

And the care would have happened anyway, especially with Panda Bears that are in danger of extinction. Not many cubs are born. Experts say that "Only 24 per cent will give birth," so a very little number out of the whole happens to actually have cubs.

Ai Hin probably wouldn't have minded having them either way.

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