Baby on board? Toronto Zoo’s panda Er Shun showing signs she may be pregnant

Better make some room in that panda enclosure for one more!

If the speculation is correct, Er Shun, the female panda at the Toronto Zoo, could be pregnant.

In this video published Thursday, the Toronto Zoo teases that the female panda currently residing at the zoo is showing 'nesting' behaviour, which may be an indication she is pregnant:

It's still too early for zoo officials to know for sure, as panda pregnancies can be quite complicated. The gestation period for pandas is about three to five months, and the zoo will only know for certain about 20 days before the cub is born.

While this video was initially taken in May and used to demonstrate Er Shun playing with straw as "enrichment," the zoo is apparently using it again today to tease news that Er Shun may actually be with cub.

Er Shun was artificially inseminated in April, and zookeepers have been eagerly waiting for signs it may have worked. While there is a male panda at the zoo, Da Mao, he is too young to reproduce, so semen was flown in from China for the procedure.

If Er Shun does turn out to be pregnant and gives birth to a panda cub, it would be a huge event for the Toronto Zoo, which has Er Shun and Da Mao on loan from China. There have only been about a dozen panda cubs born in North American captivity, and never one in Canada.

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And panda pregnancy and motherhood isn't easy, either. Pandas can only get pregnant once a year, and taking care of a pregnant and nursing mother panda is no easy task. In the wild, a panda can have two cubs, but will often neglect one because of how little energy they have to exert (bamboo isn't exactly a high-calorie food). Of course, in captivity, even if there were two cubs, zookeepers would make sure that both got lots of care and attention.

The Toronto Zoo will be treating Er Shun as if she is pregnant for the summer, providing her with any necessary nutrition and comfort she needs, and if there is a new cub, it will be born sometime in late August.