The National Zoo today revealed the gender of Mei Xiang's surviving panda cub to be male.
"I'm happy to say the results were very clear," said Dr. Robert Fleischer, the head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics who performed the genetic testing to determine the sex.
Through genetic testing conducted by using swabs taken from the panda's mouths, veterinarians not only found that the surviving panda was male, but also that his father is the National Zoo's own Tian Tian, according to ABC News.
Our giant panda cub is male & sired by Tian Tian! #PandaStory https://t.co/7B0S11fLte pic.twitter.com/YSXpOKsDv8
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) August 28, 2015
It was previously unknown who fathered the panda cubs because Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated using frozen sperm from Hui Hui, a panda living in China, and fresh sperm from Tian Tian, according to NBC News.
At the press conference, the zoo also revealed details about the death of the cub's fraternal twin, a male also fathered by Tian Tian.
Zoo officials determined the smaller cub likely died from pneumonia he developed after inhaling food material. Because the cub was both bottle and tube fed, it's likely that's what caused the food to enter his lungs.
Even though the zoo now knows the cub is male, the zoo still hasn't given him a name yet, reported the NPR. The zoo usually waits 100 days before naming their pandas, though it's unclear if they'll adhere to that tradition in this instance.
