Nitrogen vapor drifts from the mouth of steel container No. 9 when National Zoo scientist Pierre Comizzoli lifts the plastic lid and pulls out the stopper.
The vapor is potentially deadly, but the liquid nitrogen within keeps the microscopic seeds of life inside safely frozen at about minus-300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here, he says, as he raises a specimen rack from the vapor, is the “famous,” but now depleted, 2005 vintage that helped bring forth the zoo’s new giant panda cub on Sept. 16.
It is panda semen. Unromantic and a little icky, it’s the stuff behind the wondrous birth of the zoo’s first cub in seven years.
But zoo experts aren’t sure exactly why it worked. And Comizzoli and other zoo experts are reviewing the science and technique behind their success to try and figure it out.
The achievement was stunning — in the face of repeated failures in the past and with the odds of success at about 10 percent.
The zoo said Friday that the cub appears to be well. The female giant panda, Mei Xiang, had not left the newborn, even to eat or drink.
The birth, at 10:46 p.m. Sept. 16, came after a meticulous choreography over six months that tracked the rise and fall of Mei’s hormone levels and utilized state-of-the-art reproduction techniques.
But it was a process the zoo had been through often before, in almost the same way. So, why was it successful this time?
Brandie Smith, curator of giant pandas, said the zoo tweaked some of its procedures this year — limiting, for example, the amount of artificial light, noise and hubbub in the panda house during Mei’s reproductive cycle.
“This year was really a make-or-break year in terms of getting Mei Xiang pregnant,” Smith said Friday. The zoo had said that if Mei, who had not borne a cub in seven years, did not get pregnant this time, she should be replaced.
“So we were extra cautious,” Smith said. “During the end of the pregnancy, we became incredibly hands off. .
The vapor is potentially deadly, but the liquid nitrogen within keeps the microscopic seeds of life inside safely frozen at about minus-300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here, he says, as he raises a specimen rack from the vapor, is the “famous,” but now depleted, 2005 vintage that helped bring forth the zoo’s new giant panda cub on Sept. 16.
It is panda semen. Unromantic and a little icky, it’s the stuff behind the wondrous birth of the zoo’s first cub in seven years.
But zoo experts aren’t sure exactly why it worked. And Comizzoli and other zoo experts are reviewing the science and technique behind their success to try and figure it out.
The achievement was stunning — in the face of repeated failures in the past and with the odds of success at about 10 percent.
The zoo said Friday that the cub appears to be well. The female giant panda, Mei Xiang, had not left the newborn, even to eat or drink.
The birth, at 10:46 p.m. Sept. 16, came after a meticulous choreography over six months that tracked the rise and fall of Mei’s hormone levels and utilized state-of-the-art reproduction techniques.
But it was a process the zoo had been through often before, in almost the same way. So, why was it successful this time?
Brandie Smith, curator of giant pandas, said the zoo tweaked some of its procedures this year — limiting, for example, the amount of artificial light, noise and hubbub in the panda house during Mei’s reproductive cycle.
“This year was really a make-or-break year in terms of getting Mei Xiang pregnant,” Smith said Friday. The zoo had said that if Mei, who had not borne a cub in seven years, did not get pregnant this time, she should be replaced.
“So we were extra cautious,” Smith said. “During the end of the pregnancy, we became incredibly hands off. .