Ling Ling off to Mexico to find romance

Japan's only Chinese giant panda, Ling Ling, is heading for Mexico for a third attempt to impregnate three females of the popular but endangered species.

The middle-aged Ling Ling, now 17, was sent home last year to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo after failing a second time to romance females at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City.

"He's raring to go," a zoo official said.

Only about 1000 giant pandas live in the wild - atop foggy, bamboo-covered mountains in western China.

Female pandas in the wild usually give birth to a single cub only once every two to three years, and it has proven difficult to tempt those protected in zoos to mate.