Sixth baby from panda supermum Bai Yun
Bai Yun is pictured in a video frame grab after giving birth to a cub at the San Diego Zoo. Bai Yun, 20, is one of the oldest giant pandas known to give birth to a cub. This is her sixth cub, setting a record for the most cubs born at a breeding facility outside of China.
The most prolific giant panda in captivity outside of China, Bai Yun, has proved her mettle yet again with the delivery of her sixth cub at the San Diego Zoo—an unnamed baby panda that weighed about 113 grams at birth.
Bai Yun, who gave birth on Sunday, was the first giant panda born in captivity in China, where giant pandas are an endangered species. The 20-year-old panda's pregnancy was considered high risk because of her age, according to zoo spokeswoman Christina Simmons.
Since 1999, Bai Yun has delivered three female and two male cubs, all but one fathered by her companion, Gao Gao. The sex of the new cub will not be known for several months. The baby was born around 2:10pm local time Sunday, after about three hours of labour—longer than normal for Bai Yun.
"When they heard the cry from the baby, the veterinary staff was relieved for the mum and delighted for the baby," Simmons said. "It is about the size of a stick of butter and pandas are born hairless and pink."
Bai Yun and the new cub are in seclusion during what zookeepers call "a critical bonding period". As long as everything appears to be going well, zoo veterinarians leave the mum and cub alone.
"Panda mums and cubs go into their dens and the babies stay there for a long time," Simmons said. "We don't expect the baby to emerge before December."
Gao Gao remains blissfully unaware of his new baby, giving credence to that old punch-line that giant pandas eat shoots and leaves.
The cub's daddy, Gao Gao, isn't spending time with Bai Yun. "Gao Gao is not particularly aware of what's going on," Simmons explained. Pandas are normally solitary animals—they only associate with other adult pandas for breeding."
The birth of the cub brings San Diego Zoo panda count to four: the parents, a three-year-old son named Yun Zi and the new cub. That's more than any zoo in the world outside China. Four of Bai Yun's other cubs were later sent on to China.
"We work very closely with the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre in China, and our good fortune has a lot to do with our intense collaboration with them," Simmons said.
Bai Yun, whose name means White Cloud, is on long-term loan to the zoo from China. The zoo has a closed-circuit camera in the den and people can watch the activity on the San Diego Zoo Panda Cam, sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/index.html.
Source: Reuters
Published: 2nd August 2012
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