Indonesia’s conservation park released a video Tuesday 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 by veterinarians at the Indonesian Taman Safari park in Cisarua, West Java province, the Associated Press reported.
The video shows Rio’s development from a tiny pink baby into a panda with black and white fur, reflecting changes the park said it has been monitoring since his arrival in the early stage of life.
Veterinarian Bongot Huaso Mulia said the cub was “developing healthily and growing very well.” He said Rio’s body weight had increased by 46% over the past 30 days, and that Rio’s body length had increased by 95% over the same period.
Rio was born on Nov. 27 to Hu Chun, a 15-year-old adult female, and Cai Tao. The two parents arrived in Indonesia in 2017 as part of a 10-year conservation partnership with China, and they live in an enclosure built for them at the park about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Jakarta.
Mulia said Rio’s birth was the result of the fourth artificial insemination. He described that the team tried natural mating four times first, followed by four rounds of artificial insemination, and said: “It really was not easy.”
The story also noted that pandas are widely viewed as China’s unofficial mascot. Their loans to overseas zoos have long been seen as a tool of Beijing’s soft power, described as “panda diplomacy.” It added that giant pandas have difficulty breeding and that births are particularly welcomed, with fewer than 1,900 giant pandas estimated to live in their only wild habitats in China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
China’s Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong said the birth was the moment “we’ve been waiting for,” and he added: “The baby panda, joining the global panda family.”