A giant panda in the Washington National Zoo is showing signs that she may be pregnant. Zoo officials announced on Monday that they can only confirm her pregnancy after a few more weeks of observation. 

The Washington Post reported that giant panda Mei Xiang is showing signs of pregnancy. However, this does not mean that she is pregnant since giant panda females sometimes show signs that they are expecting a cub even if they are not.

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The only way to definitively find out if she is pregnant is to monitor and determine if the female panda's hormone levels go up in the last week of her reproductive cycle. It is at this stage that Mei Xiang could produce an offspring or not.

The female giant panda has a male companion in the Zoo, Tian Tian. However, zoo officials attempted to get Mei Xiang pregnant through artificial insemination. The female giant panda was twice subjected to the procedure. The first insemination was on April 26 and the semen came from her mate in the zoo. The next day, another procedure was also performed with a semen donated from a Chinese wildlife center. 

The male giant panda from China is called Hui Hui. Hui was chosen because of his genetic compatibility with the female panda in Washington.

A female giant panda's pregnancy can last from three to six months. 

Despite subjecting the female panda to several pregnancy tests, scientists have so far been unsuccessful in determining her true state. To be sure, they have tried to take ultrasounds of the supposedly unborn panda. However, the fetus will only appear in the last period of the pregnancy.

Mei Xiang has already mothered two cubs before. The most famous is Bao Bao, a female cub that is already two years old. The older male sibling is named Tai Shan who is now ten years old and resides in a Chinese breeding facility. Both of the young pandas were fathered by Tian Tian. Not all of Mei Xiang's births have been successful. In 2012, a cub she gave birth to died from complications.

The reason why experts have trouble determining the pregnancy of panda is due to their ability to "delay their implantation." This means that female giant pandas have the ability to control the fertilized egg from sticking to their uterus walls.

Tagsgiant female panda, hui hui, bao bao, tian tian, mei xiang, tai shan, chinese panda, washington zoo, chinese panda research facility