Love a rocky road for prospective mother panda Yingying

Chengdu (CNS) -- Female Panda Yingying has recently shown signs she is physically ready to become a mother. The panda was expected to enter an estrus period in February or March but the event began about one month earlier, during the Spring Festival holiday.

Her breeders arranged for her to meet a healthy, wild, and genetically favorable suitor while she was in heat, but the matchmaking with inexperienced male called Yibao unfortunately failed.

Veteran panda father Wugang was selected as Yingying's next prospective mate. Though Yingying was deeply attracted to Wugang, his aggressive disinterest broke her heart.

Yingying tried to rekindle the flame with Yibao, but still didn't manage to sow the seeds of a new generation with the fumbling novice.

Breeders resorted to using two artificial insemination procedures on Tuesday and Wednesday to at least make sure Yingying is fertilized, if not romanced.

As of October 2010, China's main panda conservation center and Yingying's homeland - the Wolong panda base in southwest China's Sichuan Province - adopted both natural and artificial breeding methods to avoid the dangers of inbreeding and improve the genetic quality of its panda population.