Super Zoo-Chapter 383 - 379: Let Her Be Alone for a While

At last, the situation had been clarified; the pandas’ recent abnormal behavior was not due to any illness, and they certainly weren’t going to die.

Panda Lele was pregnant, and as a "young panda" who had never been pregnant before, she seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the change for the first time. She was somewhat at a loss and felt shy, which had little to do with depression.

As for why Yingying was digging holes everywhere, Suming couldn’t explain it. Lele was in a bad mood and wouldn’t play with it, so maybe it was just amusing itself?

Zookeeper Li was still somewhat uncertain and asked the vet with doubts, "Did you check thoroughly? Don’t make a laughingstock of us."

There had been incidents in other zoos where a panda was diagnosed as pregnant, and the entire zoo staff had hustled about, even the news media getting anxious, only to find out in the end that the panda wasn’t pregnant at all but was ’fake pregnant’ to get better food treatment.

The doctors couldn’t to blame for this; the panda embryos are very small, and with the current level of technology, detecting embryos in a panda’s belly is a very difficult task. Consequently, the diagnosis could only be roughly inferred based on experience, from the panda’s daily performance and secretion conditions.

From a certain perspective, pandas have high intelligence, with human-like ’emotions,’ including happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy, and can even become genuinely ’depressed.’ Therefore, even a non-pregnant panda could show symptoms of pregnancy, such as eating less, nesting, and being listless.

Even if Lele was pregnant, since conception, it had been a short period of less than a month, which increased the difficulty of confirmation.

The veterinarian couldn’t be certain, yet Suming was unhesitant to say, "Real or not, we must treat it as real. Li, write a report today to apply for installing air conditioning in the panda enclosure and to improve the nutritional quality of the diet, no matter the cost. I’ll approve the report!"

The veterinarians couldn’t be sure, but now Suming was more than 90% confident that Lele was indeed pregnant. During and after the examination by the veterinarian, he had communicated with Lele several times through spiritual power. With the link of spiritual power, Lele couldn’t lie to him.

The reason he said over 90% sure rather than 100% was because Lele herself lacked this experience; she could only give feedback to Suming based on her own physical condition, and she couldn’t be certain herself. Of course, even without experience and being careless, it was highly unlikely for Lele to be mistaken about something like this.

Lele’s pregnancy was certainly a joyous event. The main reason pandas are so rare and difficult to breed in large quantities is their poor reproductive capabilities. Female pandas have only one ovulation period in a year, lasting just two or three days, and the eggs survive for a mere 30-something hours. In other words, mating within these few hours is the only chance for successful fertilization.

Male pandas, on the other hand, generally face an awkward problem: poor capability for mating. This has nothing to do with their physical fitness or manliness; it seems that nature has decreed the male members of the panda species to be weak in this regard.

Not only are they weak, but male pandas also aren’t particularly interested in mating. They prefer playing instead.

Perhaps male pandas think that rather than mating, they might as well dig a hole or eat some bamboo...

Many seemingly formidable animals, like lions, also have similar predicaments where their mating only lasts for a few seconds. Suming had seen the male lions in the zoo more than once, barely getting on the female and promptly losing their armor and surrendering.

Nowadays, it’s rare for pandas in major zoos to become pregnant, and on the off chance it happens, it is mostly through artificial insemination as natural pregnancies are extremely rare.

Moreover, panda cubs are incredibly fragile at birth and can easily die for various reasons. Panda mothers don’t know how to care for their young, and the mortality rate of panda cubs exceeds 80%. Of course, Suming wouldn’t let such a thing happen; if a panda cub were born, he would surely protect it with spiritual power throughout.

"There’s one more thing," Suming said with seriousness, "it must be kept secret!"

"Understood!" Li and the veterinarian both nodded emphatically.

If Ocean Park found out now that Lele was pregnant, there’s no telling what they might think. It’s better to keep it secret.

Suming asked the veterinarian, "How long is a panda’s pregnancy, typically?"

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"Wild ones are about four months to half a year, while those in captivity are usually about a month shorter," the veterinarian said.

"Got it, I understand. During this period, pay extra attention and come regularly to the panda enclosure to check on Lele’s health," Suming said.

"Understood, rest assured. Starting from today, I will take care of her as if she’s my girlfriend. No, I’ll treat her even better than a girlfriend," the veterinarian pointed at Lele, who had climbed back onto the swing and looked dejected.

Suming asked with some concern, "You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?"

Veterinarian: "..." Experience tales at novelbuddy

"I’m going back to haggle with Xiangjiang Ocean Park and try to extend the borrowing period by another four months." It had already been half a month, and after doing the math, Suming figured he needed to "renew" for at least four more months.

After briefly discussing the upcoming tasks with the veterinarian and Li, Suming prepared to leave and head to the office to negotiate with the staff from Xiangjiang Park.

He had barely taken a few steps when Panda Yingying ran up from behind and wrapped herself around his legs, refusing to let him go.

"What’s up?" Suming was startled.

After communicating with Yingying using his spiritual power, Suming was at a loss for words. Since Lele got pregnant, she had become too lazy to move and her temper had turned quite peculiar—she wasn’t playing with Yingying anymore. Yingying found the panda enclosure too boring and wanted Suming to keep her company.

Li would sometimes come in to play with the two pandas, but after all, he was human. After several communications through spiritual power, to the two pandas, Suming seemed more like one of their own kind. When it came to playing, they had more fun with Suming.

Suming laughed helplessly to himself. No wonder giant pandas struggle to reproduce—it wasn’t just a physiological issue.

This panda couple didn’t at all act like they were about to become parents. The wife got pregnant, and the husband’s first reaction was ’It’s so boring to have no one to play with’; on the other hand, the reason for Lele’s gloominess seemed to be ’I can’t have fun playing because I don’t feel well.’ Totally heartless.

But Suming didn’t have time to spend all day in the panda enclosure. He wanted to refuse Yingying’s unreasonable request, but the creature looked at him with its large, watery, pitch-black eyes, making strange ’ying-ying’ noises and appeared quite pitiful.

"Alright, alright, stop with the cute act and feeling sorry for yourself. I promise you," Suming bent down, picked up Yingying in his arms, and nodded at Li, "I’ll take her out for a few days so she won’t keep digging holes all the time."

"What?!" Li was nearly pushed to the edge. What was the director thinking, coming up with one idea after another? If something happened to Yingying outside, wouldn’t he, as the manager, be in a world of trouble?

The veterinarian remained completely nonchalant, looking over at Lele who sat idly on the swing not too far away and spoke in a relaxed tone, "I think it’s a good idea. Let her have some quiet time alone; it’s beneficial for nurturing the fetus."