Mischievous Panda tricks zookeepers, fakes pregnancy to receive special treatment

       Yuan Yuan in a private room with air conditioning          (C)DailyMail

Taiwan 11-year-old giant panda, Yuan Yuan has been caught faking pregnancy in an attempt to receive preferential treatment from zookeepers. Yuan Yuan  who was artificially inseminated towards the end of March, had begun to show signs of pregnancy including loss of appetite, mobility and thickening of the uterus, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. The panda was moved to her own air-conditioned room and given round-the-clock care, extra bamboo and treats such as fruit and buns.

Yuan Yuan eating bamboo and fruits off a block of ice             (C)DailyMail

Experts claim Yuan Yuan, the star attraction at Taipei Zoo, noticed she was provided with  the same better living conditions during her last pregnancy and so acted in the same way but when experts flown in from China after more than a month of the treatment examined Yuan Yuan using ultrasound, they discovered that she was not actually pregnant It won’t be the first time that an animal would fake pregnancy and it is said to be a common occurrence among pandas. Last year, another 6-year-old female panda called Ai Hin also tried to deceive keepers into believing she was pregnant.
According to Wu Kongju, an expert at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, “After showing prenatal signs, the 'mothers-to-be' are moved into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care.
“They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.”