A giant panda cub that was injured during birth on Aug. 1 at the Chengdu Giant Panda Propagation and Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province has been doing well thanks to the care given by the center's workers.  

Yu Jianqiu, deputy head of the center, said that the cub now weighs 1,036 grams and is growing fur all over her body, with black fur found at the shoulder and the four limbs.

According to Yu, the cub, which just weighed 176 grams at birth, suffered injuries to the head and the neck while squeezing through the birth canal of the mother panda, nicknamed "Bing Bing", who has delivered 11 babies through eight births.

The 16-year-old Bing Bing lacked milk, so the panda cub risked dying of bacterial infections, said Yu.

Workers at the center, where 38 giant pandas are kept, have been taking turns looking after the panda cub since its birth, using artificial means to rear her.

Statistics show the mortality rate for baby pandas in captivity stands as high as 61 percent.

There are about 1,000 wild pandas left in the wild, mainly living in the mountains surrounding the Sichuan Basin in southwest China. The number of pandas in captivity worldwide stands at around 100.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2003)