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Surprise as panda gives birth in US zoo
Source: Agencies |
September 18, 2012, Tuesday
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A female giant panda at the United States National Zoo has given birth to a cub - a surprise after years of failed pregnancies.
Mei Xiang gave birth on Sunday night, the zoo said. The staff can hear the cub making a squawking noise, but the cub can't be seen because Mei Xiang has built a large nest in her den.
Panda cubs are pink, nearly hairless and about the length of a human hand.
"I'm cautiously optimistic as we haven't seen the cub yet, but we know that Mei is a good mother. Like everyone else, I'm glued to the panda cam for my first glimpse of the cub!" Dennis Kelly, the zoo's director, said in a news release.
The cub is the second born to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian as the result of artificial insemination.
Scientists at the zoo had all but given up on Mei Xiang's chances of conceiving. They worried she had become infertile and had been considering whether to replace her or Tian Tian with other pandas.
Mei Xiang has had five consecutive pseudopregnancies since 2007 and had a less than a 10 percent chance of being pregnant after so many failed attempts. A pseudopregnancy occurs when a panda ovulates but doesn't conceive.
Mei Xiang's first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and gained a near-rock star following before being returned to China in 2010. Under the Smithsonian's panda loan agreement, any cub born at the zoo must return to China for breeding.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are the second panda couple to live at the Washington zoo. The first panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived in 1972 as a gift to the US people after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China.
Mei Xiang gave birth on Sunday night, the zoo said. The staff can hear the cub making a squawking noise, but the cub can't be seen because Mei Xiang has built a large nest in her den.
Panda cubs are pink, nearly hairless and about the length of a human hand.
"I'm cautiously optimistic as we haven't seen the cub yet, but we know that Mei is a good mother. Like everyone else, I'm glued to the panda cam for my first glimpse of the cub!" Dennis Kelly, the zoo's director, said in a news release.
The cub is the second born to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian as the result of artificial insemination.
Scientists at the zoo had all but given up on Mei Xiang's chances of conceiving. They worried she had become infertile and had been considering whether to replace her or Tian Tian with other pandas.
Mei Xiang has had five consecutive pseudopregnancies since 2007 and had a less than a 10 percent chance of being pregnant after so many failed attempts. A pseudopregnancy occurs when a panda ovulates but doesn't conceive.
Mei Xiang's first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and gained a near-rock star following before being returned to China in 2010. Under the Smithsonian's panda loan agreement, any cub born at the zoo must return to China for breeding.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are the second panda couple to live at the Washington zoo. The first panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived in 1972 as a gift to the US people after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China.
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