In the Heat for a Moment: The Male Giant Panda's Sex Drive Fluctuates to Match the Female's Short-Lived Libido
There is perhaps no mammal that is less often in the mood for sex than the female giant panda. Each spring, female pandas enter estrous (aka "heat") for only 24 to 72 hours. If male pandas do not make their move during that brief window of time, they miss their chance to mate. Although researchers initially struggled to breed pandas in captivity , they achieved recent success by closely studying the females' reproductive behaviors. But what about the males? It now seems that male pandas have a reproductive cycle of their own, knowledge of which could strengthen the growing captive panda population by improving both breeding strategies and artificial insemination techniques . From the summer through the fall, male pandas are not interested in sex at all. But each winter and early spring, sex hormones flood the males' bodies, plump up their testes and fire up their sperm...