The giant panda Mei Xiang snuggles her newborn cub, born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park on Aug. 21, 2020.
Credit: Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

This summer, a giant panda named Mei Xiang gave birth at Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. At 22 years of age, she is the oldest giant panda in the United States to give birth.

The female giant panda gives birth every two or three years to one or two cubs. Panda cubs are extremely tiny, weighing only about 5 ounces (140 grams) at birth. In fact, panda cubs are about the size of a stick of butter! The mother, who normally spends about 12 hours a day eating, stays with the newborn cub for up to 10 days without feeding. Cubs normally nurse for about a year and may remain with the mother for more than two years.

The new cub has siblings. Mei Xiang has given birth to three surviving cubs. Tai Shan was born in 2005. Bao Bao was born in 2013. And, Bei Bei was born in 2015. All three pandas live in China.

The giant panda Mei Xiang at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.
Credit: Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

Pandas are in danger of dying out completely. Widespread cutting of forests for wood and farmland in China has destroyed a large part of the habitat of giant pandas. China’s government has tried to protect these pandas by establishing reserves of bamboo-rich public land for them. They are protected by national and international laws.

Other efforts to ensure the survival of giant pandas have focused on breeding them in zoos, as happened with Mei Xiang. Giant pandas initially proved extremely difficult to breed in captivity. After years of failed attempts, scientists have made great progress in breeding the animals. Zoos now hold more than 300 giant pandas. This number is considered the minimum needed to preserve the animal. Scientists are researching methods for introducing pandas that were born in captivity into the wild.

Many people considered the birth a miracle, due to Mei Xiang’s advanced age. The birth also presented a much-needed cause for celebration during the ongoing pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19.

September 6, 2013

The National Zoological Park, maintained by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., announced this week that its new giant panda cub, born on August 23, is a girl. It is difficult to determine the sex of a newborn panda. The infants are very fragile, weighing on average 0.33 pound (150 grams) at birth.

Giant pandas commonly weigh from 200 to 300 pounds (90 to 140 kilograms). Their young are born weighing less than a pound in a very fragile and premature state. Panda infants do not even mover for their first two months. (c Tom & Pat Leeson, Photo Researchers)

The cub’s gender and her sire were both determined by DNA testing. Her father is Tian Tian (pronounced t-YEN t-YEN, which in Chinese means more and more). Her mother is Mei Xiang (may-SHONG, which means beautiful fragrance). Mei Xiang had been artificially inseminated with sperm from Tian Tian and another panda. Following Chinese tradition, the zoo will wait to name the new panda until she is 100 days old.

In addition to the National Zoo, three zoos in the United States have giant pandas: the Memphis Zoo,  Zoo Atlanta, and the San Diego Zoo.  Pandas are special at the National Zoo, however. China gave a pair of pandas to the zoo in 1972 after President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the country in February of that year.

The pandas at the National Zoo are owned by China. After five or six years, the new girl panda will be sent to China to live in a special panda reserve.

Additional World Book articles:

• Panda

• What’s New at the Zoo? (a special report)

• Zoo (1972) (a Back in Time article)

Other resources:

• Smithsonian’s National Zoo Panda Cam

UPDATE:

September 24, 2012

The new panda cub born at the National Zoo died on September 23, just one week after its birth, zoo officials have announced. A preliminary examination found that the cub had high levels of fluid in her abdomen and irregularities in her liver. But zoo officials cautioned that these conditions may not have directly contributed to the death of the cub, which was a female. The new cub was the sixth giant panda cub to die at the zoo since the 1980′s. A seventh cub was stillborn. The only cub born at the National Zoo to survive into maturity has been Tai Shan, who was born in 2005 and was returned to China in 2010.

September 19, 2012

A panda cub was born on September 16 at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Mei Xiang, the mother panda, “is cradling her cub closely, and she looks so tired, but every time she tries to lay down, the cub squawks and she sits right up and cradles the cub more closely,” reported the zoo’s chief veterinarian, Suzan Murray, in a statement issued to the media. “She is the poster child for a perfect panda mom.” The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The father is Tian Tian, who also lives at the zoo.

The birth of a panda cub is a cause for celebration as well as worry. A newborn panda is about the size of a stick of butter, weighs between 3 and 5 ounces (85 and 140 grams), and is utterly helpless. It is at risk of infection and is often accidentally crushed by its mother. The zoo’s first pandas–Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, gifts to the United States from China in 1972–produced five cubs, but none lived more than a few days. A mother panda must make sure that the hairless cub is kept warm and is nursing sufficiently.

The giant panda commonly weighs from 200 to 300 pounds (90 to 140 kilograms). It often eats sitting upright with its hind legs stretched out. (c) Tom & Pat Leeson, Photo Researchers

Zookeepers are staying at a safe distance from Mei Xiang and her cub. They want the mother to raise her cub naturally. It will probably be several weeks before she leaves it alone long enough for veterinarian Murray and her team to give it a checkup. The zoo’s only other living cub, Tai Shan, was born to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian in 2005. Tai Shan left the zoo for China in 2010.

Mei Xiang is a giant panda, a type of mammal that is native to central China. The giant panda eats only a certain type of bamboo shoot, stem, or leaf and is in danger of extinction.

Additional World Book articles:

• Endangered species
• Zoo (1972) (a Back in Time article)
• Conservation (1983) (a Back in Time article)