SAN DIEGO - Bai Yun, a 16-year-old Giant Panda at the San Diego zoo, gave birth to her fourth cub Friday, only the fourth such event in the United States for the one of the world's most endangered species.
The birth took place at 1:30 pm (2030 GMT) after two-and-a-half hours of labour, the zoo said in a statement, only four days after it announced that Bai Yun was pregnant.
The gender of the new Panda will not be known until mother and cub separate long enough to allow veterinarians a quick check up of the tiny creature. The father of the Panda cub is Gao Gao, another giant panda at the zoo who mated with Bai Yun in April.
Bai Yun has already given birth to three Pandas at San Diego Zoo. Hua Mei, in 1999 became the first Panda born in captivity on US soil, followed by Mei Sheng and Su Lin, both sired by Gao Gao, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
Panda births in captivity are a very rare occurrence.
The giant panda, China's most endearing symbol, lives mainly in the mountains of Sichuan, in western China.
Experts estimate that there are about 1,600 pandas living in the wild, and some 160 in captivity around the world. China has a long history of giving its national animal, the endangered panda, to other nations as a gesture of goodwill. - AFP /ls
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