Disappointing news this afternoon from the San Diego Zoo: The giant panda Bai Yun is not pregnant.
Given the idiosyncrasies of pandas' reproductive system, it will be another year before Bai Yun and her mate Gao Gao can try again.
The two mated in April. For 19 weeks, zoo staff monitored Bai Yun's behavior and hormone levels, confident that she was pregnant given that she has had five successful pregnancies since arriving at the zoo from China in 1996.
Ultrasound tests, however, indicated that the 20-year-old Bai Yun was not pregnant.
There is no indication that Bai Yun and Gao Gao will not be able to conceive next year, zoo officials said. The San Diego Zoo is one of four American zoos with giant pandas.
In the history of American zoos, no animal has proved as popular as the panda, dubbed a "charismatic mega-vertebrate" by zoologists.
Bai Yun returned to the panda exhibit Wednesday for the first time since she and Gao Gao mated.
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Photo: Bai Yun in 2003. Credit: Don Tormey / Los Angeles Times
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