Another girl cub for Liang Liang

GIANT panda Liang Liang, which is on loan to Malaysia from China since 2014 along with male panda Xing Xing, has given birth to her second cub ( left), said zoo officials.

The baby was born on Jan 14, said Mat Naim Ramli, the director of Zoo Negara’s Giant Panda Conservation Centre.

He said initially officials were not sure of the cub’s gender, as the mother was keeping the youngster so tightly in her grasp zookeepers could not get near.

“The mother is very attentive and protective. She doesn’t allow us to (take the cub),” he told AFP last week.

But zookeepers finally managed to examine the cub, and on Saturday, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar announced that it is a female.

Liang Ling’s first cub, a female called Nuan Nuan, was born in August 2015 and sent back to China in November last year as part of Beijing’s agreement with Malaysia that cubs born in captivity must go back at the age of two.

Mat Naim said the new cub appeared to be healthy, and slightly larger than its elder sister when she was born.

Liang Liang and Xing Xing came to Malaysia in 2014 on a 10-year loan.

There are 1,864 giant pandas left in the wild and only to be found in certain parts of south central China, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. – AFP-Relaxnews