Edinburgh zoo congratulates Belgium on birth of baby panda

Edinburgh Zoo on Monday congratulated Belgium on the birth of the baby panda in the Pairi Daiza animal park.

"We want to send congratulations to our friends in Belgium on the success of the panda cub born last week. It's great news that Belgium produced a panda cub. We all celebrate each other's success together in breeding a panda cub," Iain Valentine, director of Giant Pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), told Xinhua at Edinburgh Zoo.

Edinburgh Zoo is also working to replicate Belgium's success.

In early May, the female giant panda Tian Tian at Edinburgh Zoo was artificially inseminated and implanted with semen from male panda Yang Guang by experts from Germany and RZSS, together with Chinese colleagues from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

It's the fourth artificial insemination for Tian Tian. However, Tian Tian failed to produce a cub the past three times.

Edinburgh became the only city in Britain to host pandas, after Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived at Edinburgh Zoo on Dec. 4, 2011 from China for a 10-year exchange program.

"In the meantime, we celebrate the success of Belgium, we look forward to seeing a lot of baby pandas in other zoos and in China through this year," Valentine said.

Chinese giant panda Hao Hao gave birth to a baby panda in the early hours of June 2 in Belgium, the first baby panda born in Europe this year. Endit