Panda Mating In BBC Documentary

The BBC and Chinese state television collaborated on a documentary showing giant pandas’ courtship in the wild, and it just might be the first time such images will appear on TV. Very exciting. The producer of the documentary Wild China says the mating calls sound like “Chewbaccas in a pub brawl.” But the guy pandas don’t have it easy. Not only do they have to fight off other men, they have to be ready for the two-day “peak receptive time” for female giant pandas. The male waits it out by eating bamboo. Perhaps the whole eating-chips-on-the-couch-while-watching-sports thing is the human equivalent of the pandas’ pre-sex waiting ritual. [BBC]