This handout picture launched by Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo reveals feminine big panda after giving start.
Washington, United States:
Washington zoo officers heralded the arrival of “a treasured big panda cub” Friday, following the much-watched start of panda Mei Xiang’s newest child, 4 years after her final being pregnant.
The brand new mom was exhibiting typical panda mother behaviors like “nursing her cub and cuddling it shut,” the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo stated on Twitter.
“We’re overjoyed to share that Mei Xiang gave start at 6:35 pm and is caring for her new child attentively,” it added.
Followers of the panda have been capable of comply with her labor dwell because of a “panda cam” accessible on the zoo’s web site 24 hours a day — though excessive curiosity induced the function to crash at some factors.
Mei Xiang, who’s 22 years outdated, was artificially inseminated on March 22 with the frozen semen of Tian Tian, one other resident big panda who will flip 23 later this month, in keeping with the zoo.
For the reason that two pandas’ arrival in 2000, Mei Xiang has given start to a few surviving cubs: males Tai Shan in 2005 and Bei Bei in 2015, and a feminine, Bao Bao, in 2013.
The three have been returned to China on their fourth birthdays below a partnership contract during which China owns the pandas.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian themselves might be returned to China subsequent December.
Below the US-China settlement, the Nationwide Zoo pays $500,000 per yr in direction of panda conservation efforts in China.
Fewer than 2,000 big pandas nonetheless dwell of their pure habitat in China, whereas some 600 extra dwell in zoos and breeding facilities world wide, in keeping with the Washington zoo.
Genetically just like the bear, pandas feed solely on bamboo. They weigh in at roughly 220 kilos (100 kilograms) and measure as much as six toes (1.eight meters) lengthy.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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