Whoa! Panda accused of faking pregnancy to get five-star treatment

Pandas are generally associated with being lazy. They sit around all day and eat their share of bamboo leaves. They are basically like hippies of the animal kingdom. But a panda at Taipei zoo in Taiwan pulled a clever one on zoo worker’s. The panda in question, faked pregnancy to get lavish treatment from zoo workers, according to a report in China Daily. [caption id=“attachment_1686217” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] Yuan Yuan had been showing the typical signs of pregnancy; loss of appetite, thickening of the uterus and increased fecal progesterone concentration since 11 June, but Chinese panda experts later discovered after ultrasound tests that Yuan Yuan was not pregnant, the report says. Pregnant pandas are pampered a lot. According to a report in  Huffington Post, pregnant pandas are moved to into"single rooms with air conditioning" and are fed more fruits and bamboo and provided “round the clock care”. There have been previous reports of pandas faking pregnancy to get more food and posh treatment. In 2014, CNN reported that a panda,  Ai Hin, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, might have been “faking it” to improve her quality of life. “…Some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.,” the report quoted a panda expert as saying. Yuan Yuan seems to have done the same. But we don’t blame the panda. After all who wouldn’t want more food, air conditioning and lavish treatment. Wouldn’t you?