"We have to encourage them to mate, and the videos will show mating positions of male pandas and female pandas," said Kannika Nimtragol, a veterinarian at the Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand.

Six-year-old Chuang Chuang and his five-year-old partner Lin Hui, who arrived at the zoo in 2003 on a 10-year loan from China, were becoming "like a brother and a sister" as they lived together, Kannika said.

"We have to make them a boyfriend and a girlfriend. So we will put them in separate rooms next week. Chuang Chuang can only see Lin Hui when she shows signs of feeling amorous," she said, adding that the zoo will show the couple the videos in December.

Kannika said Chuang Chuang showed no interest when Lin Hui became ready to mate in January last year.

"Like other male pandas, Chuang Chuang is only interested in eating, sleeping and playing, but not mating. This is the big problem," she said.

Giant pandas, notorious for their low sex drive, are among the world's most endangered animals.

Their traditional homes have been the mountains of central and southern China, as well as Myanmar and Vietnam.

But according to experts, their numbers have fallen to less than 1,600 in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan province in China's southwest, as their natural habitats have been destroyed by humans.

Just over 180 more pandas are in research centers in China, with a handful of others in zoos around the world.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.