A panda that was originally mistaken for possibly being a hermaphrodite or for having “undeveloped” sexual organs gave birth to twin bear cubs this week.

In 2000, he/she was shipped to Japan to mate with some lucky female panda, but he/she just wasn’t into “it”. Possibly our favorite quote of the week:

Jinzhu was believed to be male owing to her inconspicuous secondary sex characteristic and behavior…When the pandas showed complete disinterest, experts decided to turn to artificial insemination, leading to the discovery that Jinzhu had no penis.

So it took the scientists a while to figure it out. But it’s not their fault:

‘The penis of an adult panda is only about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long,’ Xinhua quoted Li Deshen, a panda expert, as saying, as a possible reason for the mix-up.

Featured Song: “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Grizzly Bear

Posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 4:03 pm in News, Sex, WTF. Follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.