Keepers are hopeful that they will mate naturally but she will also be artificially inseminated to increase her chances of getting pregnant.

BBC: Edinburgh Zoo waits for female panda hormones

So, Saturday morning, a team of scientists and veterinarians artificially inseminated the Smithsonian National Zoo's female giant panda Mei Xiang, after determining that she and her male consort Tian Tian had "no competent breeding" overnight, according to a statement from the National Zoo.

CNN: Giant panda gets artificially inseminated

To confirm that this is so, Ms Welch stripped the eggs out of several females (not as horrible a process as it sounds), divided each batch of eggs into two, and inseminated half with sperm from a long-calling male and half with sperm from a short-calling male.

ECONOMIST: Animal behaviour

We remain the most charitable people on earth, but it's quite simply not in our DNA to countenance the actions of Suleman, a woman who chose to be artificially inseminated, and who chose to practice what is called "assisted reproductive technology" in order to put what she presumed to be six more children on this earth that she can't care for economically.

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