Panda cub named Mei Lan

Story Highlights

• Female panda at Zoo Atlanta named Mei Lan, which means Atlanta Beauty
• Panda fans have been keeping up with the cub on the zoo's online panda cam
• Mei Lan was born September 6 after a 35-hour labor

Adjust font size:

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The newest giant panda cub in the United States has a name: Mei Lan.

The moniker, which means Atlanta Beauty, was the top vote-getter in an online poll. The 10 names included in the poll were chosen by the zoo, local media organizations and residents in China's Sichuan Province, where the cub's parents were born.

The panda now weighs about 12 pounds and is 26.5 inches long. She stood up for the first time on her own last week and will have her public debut once she can walk -- most likely later this month or in early January. (Watch Mei Lan at the zoo's panda habitat )

She and her mother, Lun Lun, will remain in seclusion until then -- the pair did not even make an appearance during Friday's ceremony. Until the debut, panda fans have been keeping up with the cub on the zoo's online panda cam or through live video feed shown on monitors at the zoo's panda habitat.

The father, Yang Yang, is being kept apart from mother and baby, as is normal in the wild.

The 9-year-old Lun Lun gave birth September 6 after a 35-hour labor. This is the fifth giant panda born at a U.S. zoo in the last six years.

After three years of trying, the zoo artificially inseminated Lun Lun at the end of March with semen taken from Yang Yang.

A panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., born last summer, also was the product of artificial insemination. There are only 1,600 to 3,000 of the endangered species remaining in the wild today, and another 185 living in captivity.

Only three other U.S. zoos -- San Diego, Memphis and the National Zoo -- have pandas. Memphis has not been able to successfully impregnate a panda.