Recently, the "transgender" of the giant panda and Ye has attracted widespread attention from netizens. The originally cute "brother" has become an even cuter "sister", and the giant panda Huahua has become a "sister" who loves each other. ".

Of course, He Ye did not change from male to female overnight. After all, the surgery was not done so quickly. Her identity was originally female, but there was no accurate gender identification before. Generally, after the birth of a giant panda baby, scientific research Personnel can determine gender by looking at or touching their genitals, but accuracy is low.

However, in some animals, gender is not only determined by the "Creator", but is also affected by environmental factors, and even selectively changes gender after adulthood.

Giant pandas are typical "embryonic diapause" animals. Unlike humans who are pregnant for ten months, the embryos in the uterus of giant pandas will not develop immediately after mating. Due to many factors such as temperature, food, climate, etc. As a result, the embryo will wait for the right time to develop.

Therefore, the gestation period of giant pandas ranges from 3 months to half a year, and the time from embryo development to birth is usually only about one month. Giant panda babies born in such a short period of time are properly "premature babies." .

Not only is the body very small, completely different from its parents, but its own development is not complete. The ears and nose are like two small protrusions, and the reproductive organs are not fully developed. It is accurate to distinguish between male and female by observation or touch. The rate is naturally not high.

When giant pandas grow up, it is not uncommon for them to find it difficult to distinguish between male and female, because giant pandas have no obvious sexual dimorphism, and their external reproductive organs are small and hidden. It protects one's own privacy very well, so that outsiders cannot see the depth.

In addition, it is difficult to tell the gender directly from the appearance. Just like the saying "Two rabbits walking next to each other, you can tell whether I am a male or female." The colors of giant pandas are mainly black and white, lacking in identifiable The individual characteristics of identification are not like tigers or leopards, which can be distinguished by characteristics such as spots or patterns on the body.

The sex ratio of the giant panda population has always been an important part of the giant panda survey. In order to figure out the sex of the giant panda, scientists have thought of many methods, such as distinguishing it from the size of the gap when the giant panda eats a bite of bamboo, and Judging from the size of giant pandas, male giant pandas are generally 10% to 20% larger than females, but the accuracy is not ideal.

In recent years, with the development of molecular biology, gender identification technology using molecular means has become mainstream. Through non-destructive sampling or non-destructive genetic sampling, giant pandas can be identified without harming or touching them. Under the premise of collecting their feces, hair, and oral exfoliated cells to obtain DNA samples, and then conducting DNA identification, the gender of each giant panda can be accurately known. This time, He Ye also restored his own " sister" status.

Having said that, is it possible that "Huahua" is...