Indonesia's panda cub Rio thriving 40 days after birth

CISARUA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s conservation park on Tuesday released a video showing the progress of a giant panda cub, 40 days after his birth in the country.

The panda named Satrio Wiratama and nicknamed “Rio” was examined for the first time outside the incubator while veterinarians at the Indonesian Taman Safari park in Cisarua, West Java province, took his measures. The video shows Rio's growth from a tiny pink baby to a panda with black and white fur.

“The panda cub is developing healthily and growing very well. Its body weight has increased by 46% over the past 30 days, while its body length has increased by 95%," said Bongot Huaso Mulia, a veterinarian who monitors Rio’s progress.

Rio was born on Nov. 27 to Hu Chun, a 15-year-old adult female, and Cai Tao. The pair arrived in Indonesia in 2017 on a 10-year conservation partnership with China. They live in an enclosure built for them at the park about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Jakarta.

Rio’s birth was the result of the fourth artificial insemination, said Mulia.

“So we tried natural mating four times first, followed by four rounds of artificial insemination. It really was not easy,” Mulia said.

Pandas are widely considered as China’s unofficial mascot and its loans of the animals to overseas zoos have long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power “panda diplomacy.”

Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are less than 1,900 giant pandas in their only wild habitats in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. After years of hard work, finally we’ve got real. The baby panda, joining the global panda family,” China’s Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong said.