National Zoo's female giant panda has a new 'miracle' cub
Source: Washington Post
By Michael E. Ruane
August 21, 2020 at 6:58 p.m. EDT
Mei Xiang, the National Zoos female giant panda, delivered a miracle cub Friday becoming at 22 the oldest giant panda to give birth in the United States and giving Washington its first giant panda cub in five years, the zoo said.
The cub was born about 6:30 p.m., after Mei Xiang had been in labor for about 3½ hours. It could be heard on the zoos panda cam, as its mother licked it.
The pregnancy had been a miracle because at her age Mei Xiang had a less than 1 percent chance of having another cub, the zoo said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/zoo-panda-gives-birth/2020/08/21/c5b1f7b2-df30-11ea-809e-b8be57ba616e_story.html?
Some good news out of DC, for once!
montanacowboy
(6,111 posts)can't wait to see pics! welcome to the world little cub!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,762 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)Watched her raise her offspring, starting with Tai Shan, who's around 15 years old now, living in China. Once he got big enough, he and she were amazing to watch as he grew up.
She most surely deserves a break from all the pregnancies, childrearing, and even the grief of losing one several years, which was really sad. She can't replenish the population of beautiful Giant Pandas all by herself, after all, and shouldn't be expected to.
Hope she will have a tender, gentle life as she and her mate return to China and is treated with the respect she most certainly deserves.
Wicked Blue
(5,863 posts)Thank you for this and all your wonderful science posts. I enjoy reading them so much.
I'm not sure Mei Xiang has a mate any more. I think he died a while back. The Post article said she was artificially inseminated this time.
On a lighter note, since the new cub will eventually be sent to China, perhaps its name should be Bye Bye.