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Wednesday, August 3, 2005
File photo from 2001 of Hua Mei, a baby giant panda born at the San Diego Zoo on August 21, 1999.
A new giant panda cub has been born at the San Diego Zoo. Bai Yun, a 13-year-old giant panda, gave birth at 9:57 p.m. on Tuesday to a cub weighing four ounces (113.5 grams).
"Bai Yun immediately tended to her squawking infant," said Suzanne Hall, a panda research technician at the San Diego Zoo who observed the births of Bai Yun’s other cubs in 1999 and 2003. The cub is the second to be born in the United States this year. In Washington, Mei Xiang gave birth to a male panda cub at the National Zoo last month after artificial insemination.
According to Hall, early ultrasound images indicated Bai Yun was pregnant with twins. However, zoo personnel became suspicious that one fetus was no longer viable after veterinarians failed to detect a heartbeat in one cub last week. Bai Yun failed to give birth to a second cub Tuesday evening. "It is likely that the second fetus died in utero and was reabsorbed by her body," Hall said.
Panda behavioral researchers will be watching the pair 24 hours a day for three weeks to record and assess the mother-infant relationship. The new cub has not yet been named. The gender of the cub will be unknown until zoo staff can safely check.
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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication.
