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Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda cub is a male

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It’s official: The giant panda cub born to Lun Lun at Zoo Atlanta early this month is a male. The cub’s sex was determined last week during an examination by the zoo’s veterinary team and a visiting expert from the China’s Chengdu Panda Base research and breeding center.

The cub weighed about 1 pound, 1 ounce and measured a little over a foot in length, including his tail, at his examination Thursday. The cub, which weighed only about 4 ounces at birth, ‘is definitely working on growing with how much he is nursing,’ keeper Kris Gelhardt wrote on Zoo Atlanta’s website Monday. ‘It seems like every time I come back from my weekend he has grown!’

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The cub is the third of Lun Lun and partner Yang Yang, who are in Atlanta through a loan program with China. The cub’s brother, Xi Lan, born in 2008, still lives at Zoo Atlanta. Sister Mei Lan, born in 2006, moved from Atlanta to China this year along with Tai Shan, a giant panda born at the National Zoo in Washington.

In keeping with Chinese tradition, the cub won’t be given a name until he’s 100 days old.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

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