Rare birth of panda baby at Vienna zoo
Friday, August 24, 2007
A BABY panda was born yesterday at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo, the first in Europe to be conceived naturally while in captivity, the zoo said.
Most pandas conceived in captivity are the product of artificial insemination but Schoenbrunn Zoo's director Dagmar Schratter said yesterday that her team had wanted "to let nature run its course."
The cub, which measures about 10cm and weighs just 100gm, is the product of the zoo's two giant pandas in residence, Yang Yang and Long Hui.
The couple, now aged seven, came to Vienna in 2003 as a loan from China and became an item a year later.
"The two lived in perfect harmony," conceiving their first cub on April 27, Schratter told a press conference.
"We had almost given up on it," Schratter said, adding that Yang Yang's latest ultrasound on August 6 showed no signs that she was pregnant.
The baby panda, pink and almost hairless, will grow its distinctive black and white coat in the next four weeks, she said.
Its gender will only be known in a few weeks, she added.AFP
Most pandas conceived in captivity are the product of artificial insemination but Schoenbrunn Zoo's director Dagmar Schratter said yesterday that her team had wanted "to let nature run its course."
The cub, which measures about 10cm and weighs just 100gm, is the product of the zoo's two giant pandas in residence, Yang Yang and Long Hui.
The couple, now aged seven, came to Vienna in 2003 as a loan from China and became an item a year later.
"The two lived in perfect harmony," conceiving their first cub on April 27, Schratter told a press conference.
"We had almost given up on it," Schratter said, adding that Yang Yang's latest ultrasound on August 6 showed no signs that she was pregnant.
The baby panda, pink and almost hairless, will grow its distinctive black and white coat in the next four weeks, she said.
Its gender will only be known in a few weeks, she added.AFP
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