Soooo, pandas. You say you can't be bothered to make a little panda bebeh without a whole lot of help from zookeepers?
Would some cold, hard cash change your minds?
Because the Ford Motor Company Fund is going to donate $400,000 to the National Zoo over the next two years to study your health.
$400,000. Think about that, would you? They could spend all that money studying your "health," or you could just have a couple of cute cubs already, and put that money toward their educations.
Here's what the zoo has to say about it all:
"Zoo scientists, in collaboration with their Chinese colleagues at the developing Wildlife Disease Control Center, will research disease transmission and susceptibility to benefit captive and wild giant pandas. The findings will be critically important as scientists ensure that all giant pandas currently in human care are healthy upon eventual reintroduction into the wild."
...Oh. All right, that actually sounds pretty important.
The money will also help start an upgrade of the analog panda cam system -- which helps track Mei Xiang's pregnancy (or pseudopregnancy).
You hear that, Mei? Keepers began 24-hour monitoring of your behavior as of Tuesday. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.
Just have a cub already. Please. If you're not thinking about love, at least think about the money.
