Gender blunder panda has twins

A panda once mistakenly thought to be male has given birth to twins, it was reported today.

Jinzhu delivered twin female cubs on Monday night at the Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in south-western China, the Xinhua News Agency said.

But it said the 11-year-old panda was in a critical condition after haemorrhaging.

Jinzhu was mistakenly classified as a male at birth in 1996, according to Xinhua.

Scientists realised the mistake only after Jinzhu was sent to Japan in 2000 to mate with a female panda.

Understandably, the animals “showed complete disinterest” in mating, “leading to the discovery that Jinzhu had no penis”, Xinhua said.

In 2005, scientists discovered that Jinzhu’s ovaries were in the wrong place.

“After a two-hour operation, the panda became a ’normal girl’,” Xinhua said.

The panda is one of the rarest animals, with an estimated 1,590 living in the wild. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.