Animals: He or She?

Su-Lin (Chinese for "A Little Bit Of Something Precious") was the first giant panda ever to reach U. S. shores alive. To capture it, Mrs. William Harvest Harkness Jr. spent $20,000 and many months in remote Tibet, two years ago gave the baby giant panda to Chicago's Brookfield Zoo. Mrs. Harkness introduced Su-Lin as a "she," and Chicago's zoologists saw no reason to change the designation.

Last April Su-Lin died. The body was given to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History for dissection. By last week Anatomist D. Dwight Davis had nearly made up his mind that the panda, the bear and the raccoon shared a common ancestor. He had completely made up his mind about something else: Su-Lin was a male.

Dr. Davis' discovery left Brookfield zoologists scratching their heads. They still had one living baby giant panda, Mei-Mei ("Little Sister"). Now they wondered whether Mei-Mei had the right name.