SEOUL: Everland announced Wednesday (June 10) that Ai Bao, its 12-year-old female giant panda, gave birth to a healthy female cub on June 3, the third successful natural panda birth in the country.
The cub arrived at 10.53am, weighing 171gm, about two hours after Ai Bao went into labour. Both mother and baby are healthy and under the round-the-clock care of keepers and veterinarians, the resort said.
The newborn is the fourth daughter of Ai Bao and her mate, Le Bao, 13. The pair are also the parents of Fu Bao, born in 2020 and the first panda bred in Korea, and twins Rui Bao and Hui Bao, born in 2023.
This year marks a decade since Everland opened Panda World at its theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and began joint conservation research with China.
Giant pandas are notoriously hard to breed. Females are fertile for only one to three days a year, usually in spring, and the hormonal shifts of a real pregnancy closely mirror those of a false one, making a pregnancy difficult to confirm until shortly before birth.
Drawing on data from the earlier births, Everland's animal care team analysed blood and urine samples to track the couple's hormone levels and identify the best breeding window.
The pandas mated naturally in February. From mid-May, the team ran a dedicated delivery room with 24-hour monitoring and stayed in close contact with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province.
"I'm so happy and grateful to meet another new life after Fu Bao and the twins. We'll care for her with everything we have so she grows into a healthy member of this panda family that brings comfort and joy to many people," said keeper Kang Cheol-won, widely known as the pandas' grandfather.
The cub will be named through a public contest once she reaches about 100 days old, following the tradition set by her sisters. For now, she stays in a private enclosure with Ai Bao.
Fu Bao and the twins each met visitors only after they were more than five months old, and Everland said it will set a debut date after assessing the cub's immunity and how she walks on her own. Until then, the resort plans to share her growth through its YouTube and social media channels. - The Korea Herald/ANN
