One of the six Australian koalas moved to southern Guangdong Province this April under a global koala protection plan, has given birth to a cub at a wildlife park in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

Mother and baby are both doing fine, according to the Xiangjiang Safari Park, the only place where visitors can see the cuddly animal in the Chinese mainland.

The cub, whose sex is not yet determined, weighed less than one gram and looked like a pink peanut when it was born on Tuesday, said Brett Smith, the Australian keeper who came to the park with the koalas.

The baby needs to stay in its mother's pouch, an external abdominal pocket in which marsupials carry their young, for another eight months before being able to live independently, said Brett Smith, adding koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves from that age.

The birth of the baby koala proves the six "immigrants" have got used to the climate and environment of their home, said Brett.

The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland, Australia, donated the six koalas, three males and three females, to the safari park as a part of the global koala protection plan agreed upon by Australia and China.

The Guangzhou-based safari park was chosen by the Australian government as an ideal new koala habitat because of its climatic environment, supply of fodder and technical support.

The park has set aside 13.3 ha of land where some 40,000 eucalyptus trees were planted three years ago.

The Xiangjiang Safari Park, which opened to the public eight years ago, has over 20,000 wild animals of 460 species, and has so far welcomed 12 million tourists.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)