Baby Giant Panda: It's a Girl

The baby Giant Panda born at the National Zoo last month is a girl, according to the Smithsonian's genetics experts.

Last month, the zoo's Mei Xiang gave birth to the cub, but just a day later the mother's second birth — a fraternal twin to the cub — was stillborn.

A paternity analysis showed that the Zoo’s panda Tian Tian is the father.

Check out the zoo's live Panda Cam.

Tests were performed by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics.

“This was a great opportunity to assist our reproductive and panda biologist colleagues to assess their artificial insemination methods in pandas," said said Rob Fleischer, head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics. 

Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated twice in the spring after natural breeding attempts with Tian Tian were unsuccessful, according to a zoo release.