WAKAYAMA (XINHUA) - A female giant panda was born at the Adventure World zoo in the town of Shirahama in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, the zoo's operator said on Wednesday (Aug 15).
The birth of the giant panda marks the first time a new cub has been born at the zoo in about two years, the zoo said.
According to the zoo's officials, mother panda Rauhin, 17, gave birth on Tuesday morning (Aug 14) to the little female cub, who measures 15.5cm in length and weighs just 75g. She is the lightest giant panda cub born at the zoo.
The new cub is the 16th giant panda that the zoo has bred successfully.
The cub has been placed in an incubator, the zoo said, and is not yet able to feed from her mother.
Her keepers are monitoring her breath, as it is quite shallow, the zoo said.
"We are giving her milk with a syringe because her mouth is too small to drink. We have to monitor the situation cautiously," a zoo official said, adding that the cub was being monitored 24 hours a day.
According to the zoo, in April, Rauhin mated with a male panda named Eimei. Eimei, aged 25, or in his mid-70s in human years, is the world's oldest male panda in captivity to have successfully produced offspring through natural breeding, the zoo said.
