Gender gaffe panda gives birth to twins

A PANDA once believed to be male and sent to Japan to breed with a female without success gave birth to twin cubs this week, Chinese media reported yesterday.

The panda, Jinzhu, gave birth to two female cubs on Monday at the Wolong Nature Reserve in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan, 11 years after being declared male at birth in 1996, Xinhua news agency said.

‘‘Jinzhu was believed to be male owing to her inconspicuous secondary sex characteristic and behaviour,” the agency quoted Wei Rongping, assistant director of the reserve’s research centre, as saying.

Jinzhu was sent to Japan in 2000 to mate with a female, the report said.

‘‘When the pandas showed complete disinterest, experts decided to turn to artificial insemination, leading to the discovery that Jinzhu had no penis,” it added. It was not until 2005 that scientists discovered nine-year-old Jinzhu’s ovaries were positioned in the wrong place, and gave her a two-hour operation to make her a ‘‘normal girl”, Xinhua said.

Jinzhu subsequently mated with a male in March 2007 and gave birth 142 days later, the agency added.