Hi everyone! We have some very exciting panda news to share (although slightly belated) that I hope everyone will enjoy! As of September 7, we have a new teeny tiny, adorable resident at the panda base here in Bifengxia! At around midnight of the 6^th and 7^th of last week, Wang Jia had her baby! We have yet to hear all the details on the cub and the birth but both mom and cub are doing amazing and are successfully nursing as hoped. I had the pleasure of observing Wang Jia the week before for some of our research studies here and I could tell that she would be an amazing, attentive mom just from the short amount of time I spent watching her. Most of the pandas tend to just ignore you once you enter, however as soon as I walked in to see Wang Jia she walked right over to the bars and was examining me for a couple of minutes and seemed very curious as to why I was there. Eventually she got bored with me once she realized I wasn’t a keeper there to give her food and she then proceeded to nap in this seemingly uncomfortable position.

We haven’t been able to see much of her new baby yet because it is so small and hardly noticeable when she is cradling he/she (still unaware of sex of the baby). I’ve attached some more photos I took of Wang Jia while I was observing her (fun fact: Wang Jia really enjoys her carrots). Hopefully we’ll be able to update again soon with more exciting baby news!

-Scout

P.S. Some more great news that I’m sure many of you have already heard about is that the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is no longer listed as endangered on the IUCN list and is now considered “vulnerable” on the list which is amazing! While there is still a lot to be done for giant panda conservation, this is also a great sign that all of the hard work being put into the species’ survival is paying off!