After days of speculation and anticipation, a giant panda gave birth to a puppy at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington on Friday night, the zoo announced.
The panda, Mei Xiang, was born around 6:35 p.m. and was “nursing her puppy and hugging her close,” the zoo said in a tweet.
Earlier on Friday the zoo announced on Twitter that Mei Xiang “had become more and more calm and began body licking – both signs that labor has probably begun!”
Pandas are notoriously bad breeders. The animals have a press ‘season’ of only a few days a year, and whether in captivity or in the wild, giant pandas rarely let go of the desire or ability to mate, and risk their survival. In 2014, the World Wide Fund for Nature estimated that there were only 1,864 giant pandas in the wild. That if they do, like the couple who were released in April in a Hong Kong zoo, it’s a big deal.
Last week, when the zoo announced that the 22-year-old giant panda “tissue was consistent with fetal development”, it warned in its statement that there was “a substantial possibility that Mei Xiang would resorb or miscarry a fetus” . ” The zoo said scientists do not fully understand why some mammals resorb fetuses.
With Xiang, who has three remaining puppies now living in China, was artificially infested with frozen sperm collected from Tian Tian (pronounced tee-yen tee-yen), her mate from the National Zoo, on March 22, according to the zoo.
“In late July, Mei Xiang showed behaviors consistent with pregnancy such as pseudopregnancy,” the zoo said. “Well, she sleeps more, eats less, builds nests and has been observed body licking.”
Pandas are born helpless, weighing only a few ounces, said Pamela Baker-Masson, the zoo’s associate director of communications and exhibitions, “Mei Mei Xiang” a great mother. “
“We have a lot of confidence in her,” Ms. Baker-Masson said. ‘She’s very attentive. She knows what to do. ”
