Is there anything that could possibly be cuter than a baby panda?
The Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington recently welcomed a panda cub into the world, but they weren’t really sure what gender it was. Until now, that is, because the staff finally revealed the gender of their new giant panda baby.
The gender announcement was actually quite special, and two panda-keepers were given to honor to be the first ones to know.
In a video posted by the zoo, the two panda-keepers are about to reveal a painting that was made by Tian Tian, the father of the baby panda.
If it’s a pink painting, their baby would be a girl, and if the cub was a boy, Tian Tian would’ve used blue paint.
After weeks of speculation, the reveal was finally here.
It’s a boy! The two keepers unveiled a blue painting in this artistic gender reveal.
Along with the gender reveal video that the zoo posted on their own YouTube channel, they also shared a couple of adorable snaps of the baby boy, who still hasn’t received a name yet.
On the very first day, we can see how the panda cub is still tiny, pink, almost doesn’t have any hair, and is also still completely blind.
After a few weeks, however, we can already see that the cub is slowly getting that black and white fur that pandas are known for. The staff also reported that the baby is now able to open his eyes.
You might ask yourself, why did they have to wait six weeks after birth until they could do a gender reveal?
Well, unlike with humans, determining the gender of a baby panda is actually as good as impossible before or even at birth.
A DNA test is required to be a hundred percent positive about gender.
Panda boys and girls look basically identical when they’re still infants. During the first medical check-up of the cub, a DNA sample was sent to the Center for Conservation Genomics to finally discover if this cub was either a boy or a girl.
The pregnancy itself was also unique because of the pandemic.
The cub was born on August 21st, and it takes about 95 to 160 days from insemination to the actual birth, a lot shorter than the human pregnancy duration.
Mom, Mei Xiang, actually was inseminated in an artificial manner, not long after the zoo was forced to close its doors because of the novel coronavirus hitting the United States.
Usually, insemination would use both frozen and fresh sperm of the father, but that wasn’t really an option at the time because it would require a lot of close-quarters procedures with vets, something that they desperately wanted to avoid during the pandemic.
They only used the frozen sperm of father Tian Tian, and that makes this pregnancy the first of its kind in the US.
Mei Xiang is also 22 years old, making it the oldest panda nationwide to successfully deliver a baby.
She’s also the first giant panda to complete the pregnancy using only frozen sperm.
Unfortunately, it’s not possible to visit the baby panda in person.
The indoor section is still closed off as a COVID-19 restriction. However, there’s an alternative, and it’s accessible to everyone for free!
The Smithsonian National Zoo has set up two webcams in the panda environment, which can be accessed 24/7 on their website. You’ll definitely be able to spot a whole lot of cuteness on these panda cams!
Be sure to check out the panda gender reveal and some other adorable footage in the video below.
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