Panda Artificially Inseminated At Edinburgh Zoo -- But Why?

Tian Tian, a giant panda currently "on loan" from China at the Edinburgh Zoo, was artificially inseminated on Sunday after several failed attempts to bring her to mate with her partner, Yang Guang. Conservationists had been optimistic about the likelihood of the two pandas mating naturally this year, but their hopes were dashed when Tian Tian's hormone levels dropped too rapidly for breeding (as they often do). The bear was also artificially inseminated three times last year.

Female pandas have a notoriously short breeding window -- they ovulate just once a year and sometimes are fertile for as little as a day -- and if they don't feel the urge to mate with their zoo partner, the results can be hard for conservationists to watch. Or, rather, not that hard, because breeding might be nonexistent without human intervention. As a result, undergoing artificial insemination has become commonplace for pandas like Tian Tian and Yang Guang, both of whom are part of a captive breeding program meant to boost the giant panda population worldwide.

Captive breeding programs have been lauded as a way to engage the public in conservation efforts, but they have also been criticized sharply for detracting from habitat protection efforts that might be more effective at boosting panda numbers. According to Marc Bekoff, an ethologist and expert on conservation issues, captive breeding programs don't quite serve the purpose for which they've been established.

"I love pandas and I wish that they were in a better state in the wild ... but I'm just not convinced that these programs work out well in terms of getting pandas out there," Bekoff told National Geographic. "I think these programs have been going on long enough that we should see more progress made... It's almost like: Breed and pray that something works out."

Additionally, some of the skepticism about captive breeding programs centers on whether the setup adds strain to pandas' already challenging mating process. "If the bears were in the wild, they would likely have mating opportunities with other partners," David Owen writes in a New Yorker report on captive breeding programs. "[They] would thus be able to learn from experience or to encounter more skillful hookups. In [zoos], though, they're stuck with each other." And for pandas, being stuck together often isn't motivation enough.