The heaviest panda cub in the history of China's artificial reproduction program born in southwest China on Monday is doing well, said an official with the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center on Tuesday.

The cub's mother Zhang Ka, who was born in the wild six years ago and becomes a mother for the first time, is also in good health, said Li Desheng, deputy head of the Wolong center.

A giant panda cub. Photo taken on August 7. [Xinhua]

Zhang Ka has begun nursing the cub, a male panda, on herself, which is very important to the cub's survival, Li said.

Li said, a panda cub is more likely to survive if it is fed with his mother's foremilk. For this reason, researchers with the center sent the newborn back to his mother seven hours later after his birth and guided the mother panda to feed her baby.

The male cub was born at 10:39 a.m. at the Wolong center and weighed 218 grams. It is also the second cub born this year at the center.

A total of six panda cubs have been born so far this year on the Chinese mainland with four others born at a giant panda research center based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, on Sunday and Monday.

Zhang Ka also set a record for being in labor for about 34 hours.

Considering that Zhang Ka was exhausted after such a long delivery, researchers took the cub away from the mom several minutes later his birth and keep the cub in a special box, Li said.

Zhang Ka now can hold the cub in her paw and shows some maternity little by little, said Li, the deputy head of the Wolong center.

"She is doing quite well as a new mom," he said.

According to the Wolong center, Zhang Ka went in heat in early March and she mated. Experts also performed artificial insemination to make sure she conceived.

At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Zhang Ka appeared to go into labour. Experts at Wolong began a 24-hour watch. Just before 1 a.m. Sunday, the panda mom's water broke, but exhausted Zhang Ka failed to deliver her cub.

By early Monday morning experts decided to prepare to perform a Caesarean section, but just a minute before the anesthetic was to be administered a tiny voice was heard and the little pink creature was born.

The delivery room was filled with the cheers and applause of staff.

China began to artificially inseminate giant pandas in the 1960s but very few successful cases were reported. Major breakthroughs began in the 1990s. Artificial insemination produced nine baby pandas in 2000, 12 in 2001, 10 in 2002 and 15 in 2003. The number rose to 25 last year, 21 of which survived.

Giant pandas show little instinctive behavior in captivity, especially sexual desire.
Forestry authority statistics show fewer than 10 percent of male giant pandas mate naturally and fewer than 30 percent of females conceive naturally.

Female pandas normally become sexually mature at age four or five and have only one chance at a pregnancy a year. After a gestation period of 160 days they deliver one or two cubs.

The giant panda is one of the world's most exotic and endangered species and is found only in China, where it is a national treasure.Studies from the State Forestry Administration show there are over 180 giant pandas living in captivity on the Chinese mainland.

Experts had previously estimated there were 1,590 giant pandas living in the wild in China, but Chinese and British scientists announced in June that there could be as many as 3,000 after a survey using a new method to profile DNA from giant panda feces.