When will the new panda cub at the San Diego Zoo be given a name?
Prized San Diego Zoo panda Bai Yun gave birth Wednesday to her fifth cub after a 130-day pregnancy that zookeepers said ended with an apparently pleasant labor. The cub born to 17-year-old Bai Yun (White Cloud) became just the 14th panda in the United States, five of which are in San Diego. Shortly before the birth, the mother licked herself, rolled on her back to grab her hind legs and stood on her head. “We saw a contraction and then about five seconds later, we just heard a wailing cry of the cub. … It was a very vocal cub, it was like whoa. It’s got a really good set of lungs,” veterinarian Dr. Meg Sutherland-Smith said at a news conference. “She really had, I think, a very pleasant labor, not that I would know, but she didn’t have seemingly as much discomfort or moving about as what we’ve seen in the past,” she said. Bai Yun seemed comfortable with the cub and appeared to start nursing about 30 minutes after birth. “She knows she’s been there, done that,” Sutherland-Smith said.
