D.C. Panda A Healthy Baby Boy

It's a boy! Veterinarians at the National Zoo have learned the gender of the new panda cub after briefly examining the animal this morning.

The zoo says the cub is 12 inches long and weighs less than two pounds. They also say the cub appears healthy.

"We're excited to have a healthy panda cub," assistant curator Lisa Stevens said Tuesday. "It doesn't matter what its sex is — just it's good to know so we know whether to call it a 'he' or a 'she."'

Make that "he."

Stevens said the panda's mother, 6-year-old Mei Xiang, doesn't care about the sex of her three-and-a-half-week-old cub either, only the tenth giant panda in the country.

Giant panda mothers dote on their cubs regardless of their gender. Mei Xiang cuddles her bundle of black-and-white fur almost 24 hours a day.

That makes it hard for the zoo's staff to get to the cub for examinations, Stevens said. She said the staff moved in for their first hands-on exam Tuesday when Mei Xiang left the den to snack on some bamboo.

Veterinarians quickly weighed the animal — it's under two pounds and established that it was healthy. They also determined the cub's gender.

"It was just nice to have this sturdy, solid little cub in my hands," Stevens said.

Mei Xiang and her cub are not expected to be on exhibit for at least three months while they continue to bond.

The cub was born July 9. The panda has survived longer than any other born at the National Zoo and is beginning to show the animal's familiar black and white markings.

Zoo officials hope that the cub will fare better than the five previous ones born at the zoo since 1983. All died within days.

"Mei Xiang is the poster child for a wonderful mom," Dr. Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian, said after last month's birth. Mei Xiang conceived the cub through artificial insemination.

Cubs typically weigh only 3 ounces to 5 ounces and are about the size of a stick of butter.

"The cub came out squealing, so we knew right away we had a nice, healthy cub from that squeal," Murray said. "We're very hopeful for the baby to do well."

The mother seemed surprised at first but has been exceptionally attentive to the cub, holding it, licking it and immediately responding to its cries even while trying to take a nap herself, Murray said.

If all goes well, the cub will make its public debut in about three months. Until then, mother and cub will remain indoors at the panda exhibit area.

Until then the zoo's Web cam will provide the only public view of the two.

The father — Tian Tian — is expected to continue roaming outdoors in the morning and returning to the air-conditioned enclosure during the day's warmer hours.

Zoo officials are hopeful the new cub would become the third giant panda to survive into adulthood in the United States. The others were born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999 and 2003.

Giant pandas are rare. Their existence is threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low birth rate. As few as 1,600 live in the mountain forests of central China. An additional 120 are in breeding facilities and zoos in China. About 20 pandas live in zoos outside their native land.

Few capital celebrities are as popular and closely watched as Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. They came to the National Zoo in late 2000, on loan for 10 years from the Chinese government in exchange for $10 million raised through private donations to benefit conservation projects.

Their cub will be turned over to China after it reaches age 2, per the loan agreement, the zoo said. Following tradition, Chinese officials probably will name the cub after it reaches 100 days old.

By then the cub will probably weigh 30 pounds and be covered with fluffy fur, crawling and exploring at "that very, very cute stage," Murray said.

Giant pandas are capable of becoming pregnant for only a day or two once each year. For Mei Xiang, three attempts since 2003 to produce a pregnancy through mating or artificial means had failed.

The zoo artificially inseminated Mei Xiang on March 11 after natural mating between the pair appeared unsuccessful. The artificial process used has a 55 percent success rate, and the zoo was on watch in recent weeks as Mei Xiang showed signs of pregnancy because of elevated hormone levels.

A volunteer watcher notified zoo officials at 1 a.m on July 9. Saturday that Mei Xiang appeared restless and was repeatedly honking and grunting — all signs of impending birth. The birth came at 3:41 a.m.

The panda birth was welcome news for the National Zoo, which has been criticized in the wake of about two dozen animal deaths in recent years. A National Academy of Sciences panel of veterinarians, zookeepers and others began investigating the zoo in 2003, and the zoo's director resigned in February 2004 after a report criticized the care that animals had received.