Test-tube pandas

The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is hoping to try a new technique to increase panda population artificially. After Ling-Ling, their female giant panda, died on December 30, 1992, zoo officials harvested a hundred eggs from her ovaries. The eggs are being kept in frozen storage. In the future, they hope to fertilize some of these eggs with sperm from Hsing-Hsing, Ling-Ling’s zoo mate since 1972.

In 1996, Chinese scientists announced a plan to produce the world’s first test-tube panda through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The plan is to remove an ovary from a dead female panda and extract and cultivate the eggs. When an egg is mature, it will be fertilized with sperm. Placed in a test tube, the fertilized egg will be nurtured until an embryo forms. The embryo will be frozen in liquid nitrogen until a suitable panda host is found. The panda embryo transplant experiments are projected to begin in 1999. First, however, IVF will be refined using black bears.

This IVF project has stirred much debate. IVF proponents say that the panda population has declined to the point that new technologies must be found to ward off panda extinction. But opponents say that the reproductive rates of wild pandas, although low, are sufficient to preserve the species if more is done to protect their habitat.