270.4g! Record-breaking birth of the world's heaviest baby panda  

The giant panda Cuicuirecently gave birth to a female cub weighing 270.4g at the Shenshuping Panda Base in Wolong, Sichuan, the heaviest panda cub ever born in captivity worldwide.

The 16-year-old giant panda Cuicui completed natural mating in March this year, and on July 10th, she showed pregnancy behaviors such as reduced food and increased activity, and on August 4th, her water broke at 6 a.m., but she did not respond to the birth. After nearly 40 hours, she gave birth to a "heavyweight" cub at 9:39 p.m. on 5th, refreshing last year's record of 249g born to Meixi, and making Cuicui’s baby the heaviest panda cub born in captivity in the world.

The breeder who takes care of the giant panda Cuicui said, “Cuicui has not responded to the birth after her water broke. We were worried about whether she would have a difficult birth, and whether her cubs would be in danger of oxygen deprivation. And we watched her pacing back and forth inside the 'delivery room' irritably. We were very anxious, but we could only monitor and observe her 24 hours a day, and wait and accompany her quietly. We didn't expect Cuicuito give us a big surprise and give birth to a 'heavyweight' baby.” The breeder also introduced, “Cuicuiis extremely maternal and good at taking care of her baby, with her most recent birth in 2018, and her previous births were all above 200g in birth weight.”

Every spring is the "matchmaking" season for giant pandas. In March this year, the Panda Center kicked off its 2022 giant panda breeding program. This year's giant panda breeding work insists on eugenics, with high-quality breeding as the core goal, and scientific selection of giant pandas for breeding. As the pandas to be bred enter the gestation period one after another, the breeders take turns to be on duty 24 hours a day to monitor behavior and physiology through video surveillance and on-site observation, and provide timely analysis and judgment to guarantee the smooth birth of pandas and the safety of their cubs.

Since June, 6 pandas to be born have given birth one after another. So far, the Panda Center has harvested 11 newborn cubs, 5 of which are twins. The current littering season is expected to last until the end of August.