NewsNational

Actions

Panda: Will fake pregnancy for food

Posted at 2:55 PM, Aug 27, 2014
and last updated 2014-08-27 14:55:13-04

When you're pregnant, you need to eat more because of that whole "growing-a-child-inside-of-me" thing. But fakin' it for food? Turns out a panda in China might have done just that.

Ai Hin seemed to be pregnant for about two months. She wasn't eating and moving around as much and even had a rise in hormone levels.

And then experts from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center, which is where the panda lives, say the pregnancy symptoms just disappeared, and her hormone levels went back to normal.

The Independent reports it's believed Ai Hin was trying to get the special treatment given to pregnant pandas, like getting more food and being placed in air-conditioned rooms instead of being out in the heat.

Chinese news outlet Xinhua even said the center had planned to broadcast the birth, but that was quickly canceled after experts realized the panda was having a "phantom pregnancy."

It turns out this isn't really rare for pandas. To find out why, watch this Newsy video.