The newborn panda at Zoo Atlanta was given a clean bill of health Thursday.
“He looks great and is progressing well for this stage in his one month long life,” said Dr. Hayley Murphy, director of veterinary services for Zoo Atlanta.
The unnamed cub is the only giant panda to be born in the U.S. in 2010.
He weighed in Thursday at 2.2 pounds and is 13.7 inches long from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. He has a full coat of hair and continues to nurse with his 13-year old mother Lun Lun in their den.
“His mother is taking great care of him and has great maternal instincts,” said Murphy. “We checked his vital signs this morning and discovered that he’s in great shape, eating well and is an average size for a panda of his age.”
The veterinary team removes him once a week from Lun Lun for a check-up. Round-the-clock monitoring also occurs through a video surveillance at the zoo.
The newborn is the third offspring for Lun Lun and his 13-year-old father Yang Yang. All three births have been the products of artificial insemination.
Following a Chinese tradition, panda cubs are not named until they are 100 days old. The zoo plans to soon announce an event surrounding the naming of the panda.
The newborn will not be on display for the general public until Spring of 2011. Until then, panda fans can watch him online on Zoo Atlanta’s PandaCam.
I want one... he is soooo cute
I've already named him. I will call him "Cub." I know, you are impressed. It's perfect: concise, understated, subtle and obvious. No need for any silly contest just to come up with "Ding-a-Ling."
I can't wait to visit him with my kids. Awfully cute. Maybe he could replace Jack Black as the best Celebrity Panda.
And to think this little guy is only going to get cuter!!!! Awww
He already has a nickname – Wee Lan – a play on being a wee one and have LAN (Atlanta) like his siblings, Mei Lan and Xi Lan.
if i want to see subhuman species running around without a clue i will watch BET
person responsible for writing this article and the so-called editor who
approved this piece should be clear that the zoo "pandacam" works
only for Windows users and DOES NOT support Macintosh computers...
guess CNN is anti-Mac!
Looking at this cutie, my stress level has gone way, way, way down
AWWWE!
Then they grow up and become teens!
it will be a sad day when we have to go to a zoo to see anlmals. keep destroying the bio systems or we will have to go to a museum.
What an absolutely precious baby !!!
What a precious little baby. I'd rather hear and read news about this type of thing than all of the other garbage we are bombarded with on a daily basis. I pray for a day when this is the only type of news we have. Good news!
Can't wait to start hearing about more baby tigers coming into the world and more poachers being prosecuted so the tiger doesn't become extinct.
Thanks for the story CNN!
Following a Chinese tradition, panda cubs are not named until they are 100 days old.
He kinda looks like a Belgium Sheppard puppy I had when I was a kid.
So once a week the Mom gets drugged so they can take the baby and the mother passes on the drugs in her milk to the newborn Panda?
I'm sure they would just walk in the cage and try to take it from its protective mother!