Yang Yang brings a ray of hope for panda population

YANG YANG, a giant panda on loan from China whose name means Sunshine, had a surprise yesterday for zookeepers at Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna — a new cub.

Yang Yang gave birth to a cub zookeepers estimated to weigh just 100 grams and measuring about 10 centimetres.

A photograph released by the zoo showed Yang Yang, a first-time mother, holding the cub in her mouth and looking up toward the camera.

“Yang Yang means sunshine, and that’s what she is,” a broadly smiling zoo director Dagmar Schratter told reporters outside the panda enclosure.

The last time a panda was born in Europe was in Madrid in 1982, the zoo said.

Caretakers first detected the tiny creature on a surveillance camera after they heard baby-like squeals coming from an enclosed compound to which Yang Yang had retreated.

Mother and cub will remain in the enclosed area for the next two to three months.

The cub, whose name will be picked by the Chinese, will likely start crawling in about four months and will probably make its public debut around that time, Schratter said.

The cub was born 127 days after Yang Yang mated with the male panda Long Hui, the zoo said. The two pandas are in Austria on loan from China.