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Pandas have seemed to exhibit low sex drive in zoos. Scientists have even been resorting artificial insemination to pull back the endangered species from extinction.

However, a new study at the China Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda shows that if you let pandas choose their own mates, then you have the recipe for success.

"Giant pandas paired with preferred partners have significantly higher copulation and birth rates," the researchers wrote.

Hence, so far, pandas have had their mates selected for them, according to genetic profiling. But this method is worrying, as it leads to situations in which they need to show sparks of sexual interest in the mates selected for them, according to a news release.

By measuring the "mate preference behavior" of the pandas, researchers found that reproductive performance seemed to be the most in those pandas in which the pair showed "mutual preference".

"Mate incompatibility can impede captive breeding programmes by reducing reproductive rates," the researchers wrote. "It is therefore surprising that mate preferences have not figured more prominently in captive breeding programmes. The future of conservation breeding will not take place in a test tube."

The study was published in the Dec.15 issue of Nature Communications.