Oh baby! National Zoo says panda Mei Xiang has given birth

A new panda cub has been born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C.

Looks like Mei Xiang, the panda at Washington’s National Zoo, is in labor.

Mei Xiang went into labor on Saturday, and the cub was born at 5:34 p.m. Her second cub, Bao Bao, turns 2-years-old on Sunday. A second, stillborn cub was also born in 2013. As of late, Mei Xiang had been spending more time in her den, body licking and sleeping in more, and cradling toys which are all behaviors consistent with a pregnancy.

Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated about five months ago by a giant panda living in China named Hui Hui.

The National Zoo is one of only four zoos nationwide to have pandas, which are on loan from China. However, the website’s panda cam is having issues because of all the people trying to watch.

The zoo’s current pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, the parents of both Bao Bao and Tai Shan, arrived in 2000.

The male was specifically selected due to their ideal genetic diversity, the zoo said.