(Photo : Giant Panda)

More than 300 of this species live in zoos and breeding centers around the world; most of these are in China.

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Presently, two Giant Pandas are in the possession of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park under a Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement between the Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association that was signed in January 2011.

The said agreement forged by the zoo and the wildlife conservation center extends the Zoo's giant panda program through 2015. Mei and Tian, the two pandas living in the zoo, are the focus of the ambitious research, conservation, and breeding program designed and launched to preserve the ever decreasing number of the endangered species.

For the first time this year, scientists involved in the research used another test developed by the Memphis Zoo which analyzed Mei Xiang's levels of prostaglandin metabolite (a fatty acid) to narrow the window when she would give birth or experience a pseudopregnancy.

Scientists at the Memphis Zoo performed the analysis and determined that if Mei Xiang were pregnant she would likely give birth to a cub during the last week of August. Otherwise, her pseudopregnancy would likely to have ended in September.

 True enough, Giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub at the Smithsonian's National Zoo at exactly 5:32 p.m. last August 23, 2013.  According to the team that was tasked to look after the pandas, they heard the cub vocalize and glimpsed the cub for the first time briefly immediately after the birth.

Mei Xiang picked the cub up immediately after its birth and began cradling and caring for it. This is the usual and immediate response a mother would have after giving birth to its child.