We all need a little privacy.

The coronavirus pandemic has understandably altered the lives of many. While there has been much tragedy from the virus, there has been some incredibly good news in some areas, particularly in nature. It seems that without human interference, nature is thriving.

Believe it or not, one of the world’s most notoriously polluted cities, Los Angeles, has had the cleanest air since its citizens have been required to stay inside their homes. It began in early March when EPA air quality data showed that LA has experienced its longest stretch of “good” air quality since 1995.

Experts believe that this is due to the 80% drop in traffic since California first issued its stay-at-home-order.

Dr. Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, states, “With less cars on the road and less emissions coming from those tailpipes, it’s not surprising to see improvements in the air quality overall.”

Even wildlife seems to be taking advantage of a world without human meddling. In Brazil, 97 critically endangered sea turtles reemerged and laid thousands of eggs on the shores of Paulista, a town in Pernambuco.

Also on the Odisha coast, olive ridley sea turtles laid nearly 70,000 eggs. Odisha is one of the largest mass nesting sites for the olive ridley sea turtle. However, they haven’t come to lay their eggs during the day for years.

But there’s more…

Recently, two giant pandas in the Ocean Park Zoo in Hong Kong finally mated after trying for 10 years. The zoo has been closed to the public since late January.

The two 14-year-old pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, started showing interest in each other in late March, which is also the mating season for pandas. An announcement from the zoo shared details about how the mating process began.

“Since late March, Ying Ying began spending more time playing in the water, while Le Le has been leaving scent-markings around his habitat and searching the area for Ying Ying’s scent.”

Pandas are known for their low libido. For years, scientists have been trying to figure out why that might be. Thus far, they have discovered a few important possibilities.

One being that the females only enter estrus, or “heat”, once a year. Even then, they are only receptive and fertile for 24 to 72 hours. In addition, pandas are picky about their partners. Secondly, less than 5% of male pandas in captivity actually mate. Thus, captivity is a mood killer. Lastly, some believe they simply don’t know-how.

Others have pointed to the panda’s appetite for being the main culprit.

“The males often prefer eating to mating.”

Fortunately, these two love birds, er, pandas, have found the peace and quiet from human absence to be the ideal situation. Now, the staff, and the world, must wait to see if the pregnancy is a successful one.

“If successful, signs of pregnancy, including hormonal level fluctuations and behavioural changes may be observed as early as late June, though there is always a chance that Ying Ying could experience a pseudo-pregnancy,” says Michael Boos, Executive Director in Zoological Operations and Conservation.

We wish these two all the best!

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Sources: God Daily Dot, CNN, Livekindly, The New York Times