The birth of a Giant Panda baby is captured on video in what is being celebrated as Japan's first successful birth by an artificially inseminated panda in 20 years.

Giant Panda Tan Tan was the star of Kobe's Oji Zoo on Tuesday (August 26) after giving birth to Japan's first baby panda in 20 years to be born as a result of artificial insemination.

Narrowly avoiding walking on her 23-24 centimetre cub, 12-year-old Tan Tan who had a still-born just last summer, finally figured out how to grab the wriggling white baby with her jaws and bring it closer so it could suckle.

The cub has not yet been named and its sex has not yet been confirmed.

The zoo expects the baby panda to make its public debut after three months and it will eventually be returned to China from where it parents came from.

Including the newest addition, there are ten Giant Pandas in Japan -- all on lease or born from other pandas on lease from China for joint research of breeding and preservation purposes.

(Reuters.com August 29, 2008)