Australia’s only two giant pandas are getting ready to rumble. Once a year, a tiny mating window opens. The notoriously sex-shy animals will have about 36 hours to try for a cub. Thanks to the pandemic, which kept a Chinese reproduction expert out of the country, and a better understanding of the panda (research shows it’s best to just ‘let them be pandas’), Adelaide zoo now sees natural breeding as the best option for Wang Wang and Fu Ni. Giant pandas are no longer endangered, but with just over 1,800 in the wild, they’re still vulnerable. Around the world, panda keepers have met the goal of having 600 in breeding programs.
