Taiwan’s 1st panda cub greeted by thousands
Print Edition
The first giant panda cub born in Taiwan made her much-anticipated public debut yesterday, entertaining thousands of fans who flocked to her enclosure.
Yuan Zai clambered around a wooden structure inside the enclosure while mother Yuan Yuan munched bamboo. The cub captivated the crowds for 40 minutes before falling asleep.
“Her muscles are getting stronger and stronger. It is no problem for her to crawl up and down the structure,” said a Taipei Zoo spokesman.
“But whenever her activity slows down, then she is telling you that she needs a nap.”
The exhibition center at Taipei Zoo was swamped with fans — many of them parents with their children — keen to see the six-month-old cub.
Panda-mania swept Taiwan after Yuan Zai was delivered on July 6 following a series of artificial insemination sessions because her parents — Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan — failed to conceive naturally.
Weighing 180 grams at birth, she is now 14 kilograms.
Zoo authorities said that visitors flocked to the enclosure when the gates opened. Each was permitted to stay for 10 minutes, limiting the total entering each day to 19,200.
Zookeepers had to separate tiny Yuan Zai from her mother a few days after birth after her leg was slightly injured, and raised her in an incubator.
Mother and daughter were reunited on August 13, an encounter that saw the giant panda licking and cuddling her baby before they fell asleep together. The footage was a hit around the world.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names mean “reunion” in Chinese, were given to Taiwan by the Chinese mainland in December 2008.
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