National Zoo: It's a (Giant Panda) Boy!

The Smithsonian National Zoo has confirmed that its six-week old giant panda is a male.

he finding was announced on a zoo video earlier this week. Panda-keepers showed a painting in blue made by the baby's father, Tian Tian. Blue is a color culturally linked to baby boys in the United States and many other places. For baby girls, the color is pink.

The giant panda was born August 21. Male and female giant pandas look very similar when young, so the zoo did a genetic¹ test to learn the sex of the newborn.

The panda cub² does not yet have a name. The zoo usually waits until giant pandas are 100 days old to give them a name.

The baby was born pink and almost hairless. At the time, the zoo said the newborn was about the size of a stick of butter -- about 12 centimeters long and weighing 110 grams. Now, he is more black and white in coloring. And he has grown quickly. He measures about 35 centimeters long and weighs about 1.6 kilograms.

His mother Mei Xiang is much bigger --- weighing about 105 kilograms.

The birth was welcomed as rare, happy news during the COVID-19 health crisis³, which forced the zoo to close for several months.

After Mei Xiang's pregnancy⁴ was announced in August, internet traffic on the zoo's popular Panda live video feed increased by 1,200 percent, zoo officials said. When the baby was born about a week later, traffic went so high that the video connection broke for many watchers. Zoo officials had to add bandwidth as a result.

"Something like this is kind of a miracle for us," National Zoo Director Steve Monfort said at the time. "It lifts the spirits of my team and the whole world."

For now, the Panda-cam is still the only way the public can see the pandas. The zoo reopened in a limited way on July 24. But the panda house remains⁵ closed to visitors.

Mei Xiang, at age 22, is the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth in the United States. The oldest panda in the world to give birth was 23 at the time and in China.

Mei Xiang is mother to three other young, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei. They went to live in China at age four, under an agreement between China and the United States.

Words in This Story

cub –n. a young animal that eats meat

butter –n. a solid yellow substance made from milk or cream that is spread on food or used in cooking

bandwidth –n. a measurement of the ability of an electronic communications device or system (such as a computer network) to send and receive information

miracle –n. a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement

1 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

2 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

3 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

4 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。