Vienna’s City Zoo Welcomes New Naturally Conceived Panda Cub

(Source: Internet)

Vienna’s main city zoo has witnessed a rare event on Monday, after a giant panda gave birth to a cub. The zoo announced that the panda was conceived naturally. They also said that this event is unique in Europe to the Austrian capital.

Such an event is very rare because getting the shy, bamboo-eating mammals to mate is a famously difficult task. Hence most panda breeding centres resort to artificial insemination.

The cub’s gender is not known yet. The tiny pink creature – born at 05:05 local time (03:05 GMT) – is just 10cm (four inches) long and weighs 100g (3.5 ounces).

Pictures and video footage released by the zoo showed the tiny pink newborn clinging to its mother Yang Yang, who has given birth to three other naturally conceived cubs before, all of which are now in China.

The zoo’s panda area has been closed to let Yang Yang rear her cub in peace and the father, Long Hui, is being kept away for the cub’s safety.

Dagmar Schratter, the zoo’s director said that, Yang Yang is taking good care of her offspring, as she is an experienced mother. But one must bear in mind that the mortality rate of giant pandas within their first year is roughly 40 percent.