A giant panda from a Malaysian zoo celebrated her first birthday, on January 14, she enjoyed the special gift – a cake made of ice – in front of delighted visitors. An interesting fact is the one-year-old youngster still has no name.
A giant panda is “vulnerable” species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, that is why the healthy cube, which was born last year in Malaysian zoo became the best news of the year for conservationists. In fact, there are not too many pandas in the world, about 2,000 left in the wild habit in central China.
For her first birthday, the young panda was gifted by ice- cake, the animal looked around shyly as a zookeeper carried her to a platform in her enclosure where the cake, which had a large number “one” on top, was waiting. After nibbling at some carrots used to decorate the creation, the panda seemed to tire of the celebrations and fell asleep.
The zoo staff said that panda is absolutely healthy and happy, she weights 34kg for now. The baby panda is the second cub born to Liang Liang and Xing Xing since they were sent from China to Malaysia in 2014, on a 10-year loan.
The first, Nuan Nuan, was born in August 2015 and sent back to China in 2017.
Kuala Lumpur and beijing have agreed that cubs born in captivity must go back to China at the age of two. The pandas are kept at the Malaysian zoo’s panda centre in the skirts of a capital.
It’s estimated there are some 2,000 giant pandas left in the wild, living mainly in bamboo forest in the mountains of western China, according to environmental group WWF and their colleagues from IUCN.
Parent of the birthday girl came to Malaysia are on a 10-year loan in 2014, and it costs zoo authorities some RM56,000 a month to maintain the well-equipped panda centre.
