Chinese panda breeding base welcomes its heaviest cub on record as footage shows mother Ai Li giving birth to baby bear weighing half a pound
- The ‘chubby’ panda cub was born last Friday at a breeding base in Chengdu
- Keepers said the baby bear was ‘extremely energetic’ and had ‘a huge appetite’
- Footage shows the cub’s mother nursing and hugging it right after it was born
- The average weight of a newborn panda cub is roughly 150 grams (5.3 ounces)
A Chinese panda breeding base has welcomed its heaviest cub on record: a female bear weighing a whopping 219 grams (7.7 ounces), or roughly half the weight of a football.
Rare footage shows mother panda Ai Li giving birth to the healthy cub before nursing and hugging it at the centre in Chengdu last week.
Keepers described the cub as ‘chubby’. They said it was ‘extremely energetic’ and had ‘a huge appetite’.
The ‘chubby’ baby panda was born to Ai Li, a second-time mother, in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on June 5. Footage (above) shows Ai Li giving birth to the cub
The cub (pictured) was around one-third heavier than its peers. The average weight of a newborn cub is roughly 150grams (5.3ounces), or about one-thousandth of its mother’s mass
The average weight of a newborn panda cub is roughly 150 grams (5.3 ounces), or about one-thousandth of its mother’s mass. Ai Li’s cub, which was nearly half a pound, was around one-third heavier than its peers at birth.
The baby panda was born at around 1pm on June 5 in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
Another panda, named Yuan Run, gave birth to a female cub on the same day at the base. Yuan Run’s cub weighed 172.6 grams (6 ounces) at birth.
A worker in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is filmed observing Ai Li
Ai Li, an experience mother, gave birth to a set of twins, Ai Lun and Ai Mi, on June 15 in 2018
Footage shows Ai Li nursing and hugging its cub right after it was born last Friday in Chengdu
The base said Ai Li, a second-time mother, displayed strong maternal instinct and breastfed its cub immediately after the labour.
The pink, hairless bear drank six grams (0.2 ounces) of its mother’s milk and its appetite ‘far-exceeds that of an average newborn cub’, keepers noted.
The cub has two elder siblings, a set of male twins named Ai Lun and Ai Mi born on June 15 in 2018.
A spokesperson said only two cubs with such weight had ever been born in the base.
Apart from the newborn bear, a female panda named Xing Ya had the same weight when it was born in August, 2013.
Why are panda cubs pink?
When pandas are born, they are hairless and pink. Their iconic black-and-white coat only starts to grow when they are about six months old
Most panda cubs are born in June, July and August.
When it is born, a baby panda is hairless and pink. It starts to have a black-and-white coat at around six months old.
A cub usually weighs 140 grams (4.9 ounces) at birth, or about one-thousandth of its mother’s weight.
It can grow up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds) when it turns one.
At China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, when a panda is born overweight, special care will be given by the keepers.
A baby panda is fed with breast milk from its mother. It starts to eat solid food, such as bamboo, when it reaches one year old.
Cubs do not open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks of age and are not mobile until three months old.
Panda cubs are born with soft fingernails, which will grow to be thick, hard claws.
At about five to seven months old, cubs are ready to climb trees.
Source: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, People’s Daily, San Diego Zoo