The English daily Taipei Times ran a story on Wednesday's science section saying that the animals had been exposed as 'Wenzhou brown forest bears that had been dyed' to resemble pandas.

It also quoted a fictional zookeeper as saying that she became suspicious when the bears 'began to spend almost all of their waking hours having sex,' as pandas are known for their low sex drive.

'Their behavior caused chaos. Children screamed and parents became irate,' the keeper said.

The report also pretended to quote Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying: 'We hope that our Taiwanese friends enjoy the gift of two extremely rare Wenzhou brown forest bears.' However, Taipei zoo director Jason Yeh was not amused and demanded a correction of the report he said had 'seriously damaged' panda conservation education.

'We urge the newspaper to correct this improper story as it sends the wrong message. The joke has gone too far which not only hurt its credibility but the conservation education,' Mr Yeh said on Friday.

The zoo had received dozens of phone calls locally and from abroad complaining about the article, he said.

Lawmaker Wu Yu-sheng of the ruling Kuomintang party also demanded the paper apologise for publishing an 'untrue and baseless' report.

The Taipei Times has defended its move, saying readers should be capable of telling a joke from the truth. 'April Fools' Day jokes highlight an important aspect of the consumption of media: that readers and viewers should keep a critical mind when they read stories or watch TV,' it said in a statement.

The on-line version of the story ended with the phrase 'Happy April Fools' Day!' and had received more than 22,000 hits as of Friday. The pandas, called Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were given to Taiwan in December as part of a series of measures by the two sides to ease tensions that have lasted since a civil war divided them in 1949. -- AFP