Being deceptive in order to get your way isn’t nice, but unfortunately, this is an imperfect world. That tactic will totally work, and it helped giant panda Ai Hin at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding get a bunch of extra treats. Not only did her lies get her better food, but she also got to stay in an air-conditioned room to lounge in and 24-hour care. For a little while, at least.
What she did was trick her handlers into thinking she was pregnant in order to get special treatment. That lucky bear.
After displaying signs that she was pregnant for nearly two months, Ai Hin began acting normally again. Perhaps she had finally eaten all she could possibly eat or maybe she just couldn’t live with the guilt of leading her handlers astray. Either way, she cut it out and went back to normal.
False pregnancies are actually fairly common among pandas–often times, a zoo will not fully know if a panda is pregnant until they start giving birth.
The life of Ai Hin’s cub was to be available online so everyone could keep tabs on the little one from its birth to when it fakes its own pregnancy. (Hey, you can’t blame a bear who just wants to cool off and chow down on some additional delicious bamboo.)
(via CNN, IFLScience)
Share this post using the buttons below.
