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Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Scientist: Zhang Zhihe
by Mary - November 29, 2006 - 8:28 AM

panda.jpgOh, yeah, baby, gimme some of that sweet, sweet video action. No, really — apparently, the reason for the incredible panda baby boom of the last two years is, um, porn:

“It works,” Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, said about showing uninitiated males DVDs of fellow pandas mating.

It is one of many techniques tried over the decades to get captive pandas — notoriously poor breeders — to do it, and do it right. The efforts to understand and simulate conditions for mating have paid off in China, the panda’s native habitat.

The audio-visual approach “is the same idea as chimpanzees seeing people smoke and then copying it,” says Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee, a Thai researcher.

I think the Bloodhound Gang would approve of this development.

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Comments (10)

  1. Now I feel really old. When you mentioned The Bloodhound Gang, the first thing I thought of was the detective crew from PBS’s 3-2-1 Contact, and I couldn’t figure out what that had to do with panda mating …

    posted by Dan H. on 11-29-2006 at 9:21 am

  2. The only problem with Panda porn is that all the films are black and white.

    Does that make it Panda Noir film?

    posted by Sheldon Siegel on 11-29-2006 at 9:29 am

  3. everyone should watch this youtube-panda-clip. It has nothing to do with either mating of porn, but is the cutest ever!!!

    posted by femke on 11-29-2006 at 9:45 am

  4. $%@#%#! No links allowed, well anyway search for ‘panda’ at youtube.com. It is the 5th clip, 14 seconds long, posted by Karille

    posted by femke on 11-29-2006 at 9:47 am

  5. This post is very interesting, but I really must say I do not see the point of the pornographic song lyrics. I don’t see that they add anything at all to the post. I really like Mental Floss magazine, but the one thing I don’t like about it is the insistence on infusing so much pop culture garbage into the magazine. I think that trivia is great when you learn something from it. However, if there were ever an example of useless garbage information, these song lyrics are a prime example.

    posted by Mike Landau on 11-29-2006 at 11:36 am

  6. Hi Mike — thanks for your comments. I’m sure we have many readers who share in your distaste for the Bloodhound Gang; we also have many readers who find them amusing. There’s a reason we didn’t reprint the lyrics; the reference was just there for people who would know it. But it’s a hard balance to strike. We’re hoping to get some more thoughts from all three of the Triumvirate members as we start the new year; looking forward to hearing more from you.

    posted by Mary on 11-29-2006 at 1:26 pm

  7. When one little panda posts lyrics to a naughty song on a panda-family-oriented blog, that makes me a saaaaad panda.

    posted by sexual harassment panda on 11-29-2006 at 2:05 pm

  8. No naming names, but I’ve got a super-ultra-smart side which reads academic journals and a retarded side which reads pre-teen serial novellas. I like Mental Floss cause it brings those 2 sides together in a wet, heaving pile. Thanks, Mental Floss, for keeping me wet.

    posted by Amanda on 11-29-2006 at 11:42 pm

  9. posted by dustone on 12-3-2007 at 9:38 pm

  10. posted by korent on 12-13-2007 at 6:52 am

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