More Panda News -- a photo and video

The newborn panda is the little creature just above Bai Yun


VIDEO OF BIRTH: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/videos/?bcpid=4552241001&bclid=5172095001&bctid=32205190001



SAN DIEGO - Prized San Diego Zoo panda mom Bai Yun has given birth to her fifth cub, the zoo announced Wednesday.



The cub, born to 17-year-old Bai Yun (White Cloud), becomes just the 13th panda in the United States.



It was born at 4:58 a.m. Wednesday, zoo spokeswoman Jenny Mehlow said.

A second fetus had been detected, but Mehlow said it was probably absorbed in the mother's uterus.



The pink panda newborn weighed about 4 ounces (113 grams) and is about the size of a stick of butter. Its gender won't be known for about a month, Mehlow said, and it won't get a name for 100 days, in line with Chinese tradition.



Mom and cub will lead private lives for the next four months or so, but they will appear on the zoo's live Panda Cam, which can be watched online.



Bai Yun, who weighs about 300 pounds (136 kilograms), was born in a breeding centre in China and arrived in San Diego in 1996.



The zoo announced just last week that Bai Yun was pregnant, based on ultrasound tests.
The father is longtime consort Gao Gao (Big Big), who has fathered three of Bai Yun's other cubs.
The number of cubs makes the pair one of the most reproductively successful panda couples ever in captivity.



Pandas are notoriously poor breeders - one reason their species is endangered - and females have only three days a year in which they can conceive. Only about 1,500 giant pandas remain in the wild, and around 250 live in captivity.
Bai Yun and Gao Gao meet only a couple of days a year. When Bai Yun enters her fertile periods, zookeepers make sure Gao Gao is there, sniffing her through a perforated gate zookeepers call a "howdy door" until her chirps and bleats indicate she's ready to get down to business.



Bai Yun gave birth to her first cub in 1999 through artificial insemination from her first arranged suitor, Shi Shi (Stone). Hua Mei (China/U.S.A.) was the first giant panda cub born in the United States after a decade of failed breeding attempts. She has had three sets of twins since returning to China in 2003.



Bai Yun's newest cub will probably be returned to China around age 3 or 4, Mehlow said.
Gao Gao, who was born in the wild, arrived in San Diego in 2003 after veterinarians gave up on Shi Shi, who turned out to be older and less virile than originally believed and was returned to China. Shi Shi died last year.



Some males never succeed at natural breeding, so artificial insemination has become common practice when breeding captive pandas.
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