By Tsai Ya-hua and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Taipei Zoo on Wednesday and Thursday performed two artificial inseminations of its female giant panda, which is in its high fertility season, in the hopes of conceiving a new cub for its panda family. As the chance of ovulation would be highest when Yuan Yuan’s hormone levels peaked on Thursday, the zoo performed artificial inseminations on Wednesday and Thursday with semen collected from Tuan Tuan (團團), its male giant panda, the zoo said. During previous panda mating seasons, Chinese experts from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda visited the zoo, but they could not travel to Taiwan this year due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in China, it said. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were gifted by China to Taiwan in 2008. Their only cub, Yuan Zai (圓仔), was born in 2013 at the zoo following artificial insemination.

Source: Taipei Times February 29, 2020 15:56 UTC