Tonight as I was playing (attempting to play?) my game on my laptop in bed I flipped through my favorite TV channels to put something on in the background. I stumbled across a show about a pair of pandas in the U.S. whom they were trying to mate. So I watched it.

It was pretty amazing. Pandas, being as endangered as they are, ovulate only once a year. (Well, the females do.) And so, just like with humans, with each ovulation they have only about a 12-24 hour window of a successful mating. (And, unlike humans, pandas won’t mate prior to her going into super-fertile “I’M OVULATING!” mode.)

With these two particular pandas, the first year the zoo had them, she went into heat, they tried to figure out the intercourse thing (the pandas, I mean), they even mated briefly. But no pregnancy occurred.

The second year she went into heat they put the two pandas together again and they made a few attempts – but no mating took place. Much disappointment, there would be no panda baby yet again.

The third year, after talking to the Chinese to decide on a course of action, the panda keepers decided to do panda IUI. Yes, panda artificial insemination. Both pandas had to be sedated for the procedure, but the general principal applied – sperm gets taken out, sperm gets put in, much waiting occurs.

And a little baby panda was the result. What an amazing little thing. The panda keepers were nearly crying.

So there you go – we are pandas.