Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/21/baby-giant-panda-born-at-natio.html
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Mazel tov, Mei Xiang! 
I hope your cub has a long and peaceful life. 
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I’m no zoo scientist, and this is cute and all–and I know how hard it is to get pandas to reproduce in captivity–but I find the mama panda stuck in that relatively tiny cage kinda depressing.
(sigh) Yeah, I had to be that guy.
Is the video feed in black & white or color?
It’s kind of hard to tell with these guys.
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I don’t think she feels stuck in there, but rather, safe. I’ve bred a few animal species (not pandas, though) and I would guess that she entered an open door into the small cubicle on her own once she went into labor, and was then shut in for a time to give birth, and to nurse and bond with her cub, and to make her feel more secure. Ever heard the quaint old term “going into confinement” to describe this behavior in our own species?
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A stall is not the traditional solution.
Giant Pandas nest on the ground or in hollow trees, giving birth approximately 100 to 150 days after they have mated. Hollow trees are becoming scarcer creating yet another problem for breeding.
https://www.pandasinternational.org/education-2/panda-facts/
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Didn’t imply that stalls ever were “a traditional solution”. In lieu of protected habitat with natural dens in the bamboo forest, I do hope that they are putting artificial ones there.
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Yeah, yeah. Tell us all ho awesum your Giant Panda is when he’s crushing your city underfoot.
There can be only one.
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That would be totally fucking awesome and I for one welcome our Bamboo Munching Monochrome Overlords!!
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The schedule has freed up - Thor just killed Galactus.
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Back on the topic of babies…
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