Giant Panda Cub Celebrates 2nd Birthday in the U.S.

Giant panda cub Xiao Qi Ji celebrated his second birthday at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. on August 21.

The outside area of the renowned giant panda habitat was packed with visitors, who came to wish Xiao Qi Ji a happy birthday in the morning. Keepers made a cake with frozen diluted apple and pineapple juices for the cute cub, and decorated it with a red “2” as well as the cub’s favorite treats – sweet potato, apple, carrot, pear, sugar cane, banana, and bamboo. Xiao Qi Ji walked to the cake and began devouring it with joyful fans and visitors spontaneously singing together the birthday song for him and filming the moment.

Mei Xiang, Xiao Qi Ji’s mother, turned 24 years old in July and Tian Tian, the cub’s biological father, will have his 25th birthday this year. Giant pandas have been living in the Smithsonian’s National Zoo since 1972. Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and Xiao Qi Ji are the three giant pandas currently living in the zoo.

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo is celebrating 50 years of “unprecedented achievement in the care, conservation, breeding, and study of giant pandas.”