Tokyo zoo is celebrating; confirms new baby panda is a girl!

New Delhi: Tokyo's Ueno Zoo has a new arrival! On June 12, the zoo welcomed a perfectly healthy female baby panda in their midst, making it the first birth of the species in five years.

The announcement sent television reports rolling and set off panda fever nationwide. According to a zoo spokesperson, the cub's sex was confirmed based on pictures sent to a panda research centre in the shy animal's native China.

A panda cub's sex determination at birth can prove difficult since they are born pink, hairless and weigh around 100 grams (three-and-a-half ounces), which is tiny.

The little cub "seems to be in good health" and is drinking her mother's milk, the spokesman said, adding she is now 17.6 centimetres (seven inches) long and weighs 283.9 gramme (9.9 ounces).

Her pink body is beginning to show tell-tale black panda fur.

"She has started to grow black fur around her eyes and on other parts of her body," the spokesman added.

The new unnamed cub and her 11-month-old mother, Shin Shin, are being carefully monitored round the clock.

The happiness of the zoo staff post the new cub's birth knows no bounds, since the last panda's arrival at the zoo ended unhappily, with the baby dying from pneumonia.

The death reduced one of the zoo's directors to tears.

(With PTI inputs)