Giant Panda Mei Xiang plays in the giant panda house at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 23, 2019. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)
Giant panda Mei Xiang is expected to "test" her newborn cub's tolerance to resting on the floor over the next several days, Laurie Thompson, assistant curator of giant pandas with the Smithsonian's National Zoo, said on Tuesday.
Thompson, in an update, wrote that Mei Xiang placed the cub on the floor of the den briefly in the morning.
"Eventually, she will briefly leave the den to get a drink of water and urinate," the curator predicted. "If the cub vocalizes, Mei Xiang will quickly return to care for it."
She added Mei Xiang and the cub "continue to do well," as the female giant panda shifts from a resting position to a nursing position. Besides, Mei Xiang "occasionally holds the cub delicately in her mouth."
Panda cub Bao Bao (Front) plays besides her mother Mei Xiang during her first birthday celebration at the National Zoo in Washington D.C., Aug. 23, 2014. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
Mei Xiang, 22, gave birth to the cub on Aug. 21, the seventh since she and male giant panda Tian Tian began living in the zoo in 2000. Three of her cubs have survived to adulthood.
She was artificially inseminated in March this year with frozen semen collected from Tian Tian. Veterinarians confirmed evidence of a fetus on an ultrasound earlier this month.
Tian Tian will turn 23 years old on Aug. 27. The national zoo said it will make a panda-friendly fruitsicle cake for him.
The zoo in Washington, D.C. has a decades-long partnership with Chinese scientists and curators on conserving giant pandas.
Its current cooperative breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association will expire later this year, but zoo chief Steve Monfort told Xinhua on Saturday that they are "going to come up with a really good agreement pretty soon."