Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Biggest panda born in captivity


Giant panda gives birth to giant cub
Tue Aug 8, 9:10 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A giant panda in China has given birth to the heaviest cub born in captivity after the longest period in labor and elsewhere twin pandas each gave birth to twins, Xinhua news agency reported.

Six-year-old Zhang Ka delivered the baby on Monday at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in the mountainous southwest, Xinhua said.
The cub weighed just 218 grams (half a pound), but was still the heaviest panda ever born in captivity, where most cubs are born at between 83 and 190 grams, Xinhua said.
"It is very rare for them to be even near 200 grams," it said in a report late on Monday.
But the size and the fact that it was Zhang Ka's first meant a "painstaking and eventful" birth for the mother, who was born in the wild.
"The whole process lasted about 34 hours and was the longest in the history of panda reproduction," Xinhua quoted Zhang Hemin, head of the Wolong center, as saying.
Both mother and baby were doing well, the agency said.

Read the rest here: Yahoo news

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How cute is that? Oh my, what a cute little thing. Ugly but cute and thank goodness another one is born, I don't want them to be gone, I love that bear. One of my favorites!