Chinese garden/people relaxing

00:00

Music

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00:09

Hutcheon:  A thousand years ago this is how much of China must have looked. It was an idyllic time, when Tang dynasty poets spent languid days crafting verse, intellectuals sipped tea and discussed the affairs of state. While in the forests, high about Chengdu, wild pandas roamed the scrub in search of bamboo, their favourite food.

Pandas

Then came progress.

Industrialised city

00:43

Guanghan:  Before the 70's the panda's natural  habitat was more than forty thousand square kilometres. Now it's reduced to less than twenty thousand kilometres. Because of felling,

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Guanghan

the construction of roads and farmlands the forests have been divided into small areas - and this affects the pandas, their mating and their communication.

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Pandas at play

01:17

Hutcheon:  Li Guanghan's life has been dedicated to the goal of increasing the panda population, in the face of China's rapid urbanisation.

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Hutcheon and Guanghan

With his help, the Chengdu city government established a 26 hectare breeding centre which simulates the panda's natural habitat

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Tourists watch pandas

For even the most cynical among us, it's hard to resist a panda.

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Pandas drink from bottles

02:05

Last year's litter is now 8 months old, and the playful cubs are on their way to becoming healthy adults.

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Though the pandas seem to be thriving and the tourists delighted, it's not as picture perfect as it seems. These cubs were produced by artificial insemination, because adult pandas are becoming more sedentary and less interested in sex.

Guanghan/Pandas

02:37

Guanghan:   The main problem is that 90% f male pandas can't mate naturally - only 10% are able to have sex.  In Chengdu there's just one male panda which can copulate naturally - but this isn't good.

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Mei-Mei being inseminated

03:04

Hutcheon:   Meet Mei-Mei, a five year old female who's been drugged, and is about to undergo a very public and possibly degrading  insemination. Director Li supervises the delicate procedure, some he's done dozens of times before.

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03:30

Hutcheon:   In captivity, this is what it takes to make a panda.

Guanghan:  All the pandas in our Chengdu base were bred by us - most of them are the products of artificial insemination.

Guanghan

Without artificial insemination we wouldn't have so many pandas.

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Mei-Mei sleeping it off

04:00

Hutcheon:  When the procedure's over, Mei-Mei is left to sleep off the drugs.

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04:15

For 13 frustrating years, researchers here have been investigating how to encourage pandas to mate.

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As China's top protected species, ensuring their survival has gone beyond a national goal. The state has reached beyond these borders, seeking millions of dollars to protect pandas, both in the wild and in captivity. But to date, victory has largely belonged to science and not to nature.  Now researchers are looking at other, more desperate means.

Guanghan

04:54

Hutcheon:  What about Viagra, do you think that could work?

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Guanghan:  Well, we haven't used Viagra before.  Using Viagra won't help in improving the quality of the sperm - it will only increase the sexual desire.

Panda eating bamboo

05:14

Hutcheon:  Some researchers claim that the lethargy induced by captivity has put the pandas focus on food and sleep, rather than sex.

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Panda sex video

To encourage them, one research base suggests showing pandas p-rated video like this. But Director Li is more than a little sceptical.

05:38

Guanghan:  We haven't asked the pandas to watch videos.  It works for humans, who are high-grade animals -

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Guanghan

it might be effective for primates.  The most important issue is to improve the level of the panda's health, nutrition, exercise and sunshine.

Panda sex video

06:01

Hutcheon:  If naughty videos won't do the trick, researchers may have to go back to the laboratory. It's time to check-in on Mei-Mei, who's still in a drug induced panda paradise.

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Visitors watch Mei-Mei

06:18

Local visitors are perplexed that she's so deep in sleep. So I give them an update on her situation.

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Hutcheon:  She's very tired...

Visitor:  Look at her - she's tired. This is artificial insemination.

Hutcheon:  Look, she's getting up!

Mei-Mei

06:37

Hutcheon:  Though it's not the preferred way to keep a species going, it's certainly better than extinction. And Mei-Mei, I'm happy to report, is pregnant, and expecting a cub any time after August.

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06:54

END

Credits:

Reporter:  Jane Hutcheon

Camera:  Sebastian Phua

Sound:  Charles Li

Editor:  Garth Thomas