Ueno Zoo’s Panda Cub Growing Up Healthy before 1st Birthday

June 12, 2018

Tokyo- Xiang Xiang, a giant panda cub at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, showed off a playful personality in front of the press on Monday, the day before her first birthday.

The female cub at the zoo in Taito Ward laid down in a hammock set up in her enclosure in the morning as a birthday present and frolicked with bamboo leaves.

She seemed to take a liking to the hammock, which a zookeeper created by weaving unused fire hoses.

Yutaka Fukuda, head of the zoo, said that he was "very delighted" and "relieved" to watch the cub growing up.

"We will continue to devote all our efforts to rearing management so Xiang Xiang can grow up healthy," he added.

Xiang Xiang's weight had increased to 28.2 kilograms as of June 5, up from 147 grams recorded immediately after her birth.

Although Xiang Xiang suckles her mother's milk four or five times a day, the zoo has seen her eating apples as well. Jiji Press