Bienvenue! First French baby panda to be born

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Giant panda Huan Huan, on visit at the Beauval zoo in central France from China along with her male partner Yuan Zi, is pregnant and likely to give birth to her first French cub in early August, the zoo announced on Wednesday

Ultrasound tests on the female panda detected "a small heart beating" and a fetus at 3.4 centimeter. After a 50-day gestation period, the new comer is expected on either August 4 or 5. It will likely weight just 100 grams, according to a statement of the zoo.

Ultrasound of Huan Huan. /AFP Photo

"It's exceptional. We just exploded in joy as we've been waiting such a long time for this moment," the zoo's communications director Delphine Delord told AFP. "It also gives us hope for the conservation of pandas, which in nature are in danger of extinction."

Breeding pandas, in captivity or in the wild, is notoriously difficult. The female panda is only on heat once a year for about 48 hours.

Huan Huan and her beau were brought together in February, with the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen, said Delord. "So we did an artificial insemination," she added.

Huan Huan, the nine-year-old female panda. /AFP Photo

The nine-year-old couple is the only pandas living in France, and they arrived in Beauval in 2012 after a six-year-long, intense, high-level negotiation between Paris and Beijing.

There are about 2,000 pandas in the world, and only 19 zoos, outside of China, have been allowed to house pandas.

Pandas are classified as "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

(With input from AFP and Xinhua)

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