Three-month-old twin pandas play at the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province November 5, 2005. [newsphoto]

A pair of newborn pandas at the Wolong centre in July. [China Daily]

　　Male giant pandas are notoriously unamorous only one in 10 makes an effort to mate.

　　And to make matters worse, females are very picky about Mr Right.

　　Certainly not encouraging if the endangered species has to thrive but one good sign is a "hands-off" approach is working well.

　　This year, 25 pandas were born through artificial insemination, of which 21 survived a record since China started trying the method in the 1960s, reports Xinhua.

　　"It's undoubtedly a boon," said Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu-based Giant Panda Breeding Technology Committee.

　　Zoologists artificially impregnated 38 giant pandas nationwide in the spring and the 25 were born in the fall, Zhang told Xinhua yesterday.

　　He said 16 of the surviving baby pandas were born at the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Centre in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, including two sets of twins.

　　The Wolong centre has reported a 100-per cent newborn survival rate for five years in a row.

　　"We owe this achievement to Chinese scientists. They have acquired the technology and experience after years of hard work."

　　Last year, 30 artificially-fertilized giant pandas produced 12 offspring but only nine survived.

　　China began to try artificial fertilization technologies on giant pandas in the 1960s but there were few successes.

　　Major breakthroughs were reported only this decade with nine, 12, 10 and 15 births reported from 2000 to 2003.

　　Giant pandas show little libido in captivity official statistics show fewer than 10 per cent of male giant pandas mate naturally and fewer than 30 per cent of females conceive naturally.

　　Zhang and his team have even showed the pandas videos of mating in the wild to stoke their sexual desire.

　　"We also raise panda cubs in pairs hoping puppy love will lead to couples."

　　Female pandas normally reach oestrus at the age of four or five and have only one chance of conceiving in a year. After 160 days of pregnancy, they deliver one or two cubs.

　　Pandas are among the most endangered wild animals globally and are found only in China. A forestry report last year said there were 1,590 giant pandas living in the wild and another 161 in captivity at zoos worldwide.

　　Wild pandas mainly live in mountainous areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

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