Hua Mei (; intended meaning: "China/USA") (born August 21, 1999) is a female

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

. She is the first giant panda cub to survive to adulthood in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. She was born to

Bai Yun Bai Yun (; born September 7, 1991) was the first female giant panda who was born at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in China. From September 1996 she lived at the San Diego Zoo for more than 20 years, until being returned to China in May ...

(mother) and Shi Shi (father) at the

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in San Diego, California, United States, located in Balboa Park (San Diego), Balboa Park. It began with a collection of animals left over from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition that were brought together by its ...

. Millions of people around the world watched Hua Mei grow up via the zoo's Panda Cam. Hua Mei is the elder half-sister to five other cubs born to Bai Yun: Mei Sheng, Su Lin, Zhen Zhen, Yun Zi, and

Xiao Liwu Xiao Liwu (; meaning: "Little Gift") is a male giant panda born at the San Diego Zoo on July 29, 2012. Xiao Liwu is the sixth cub born to his mother Bai Yun, and the fifth for his father Gao Gao. He has one half-sister, Hua Mei, through Bai Yun. ...

. These cubs' father is

Gao Gao Gao Gao () is a male giant panda formerly at the San Diego Zoo from 2003 to 2018 and was then returned to China. He was diagnosed with a heart murmur in 2013. His right testicle was removed for health in 2014. To date, he has fathered five giant p ...

. In February 2004, upon reaching adulthood, Hua Mei was relocated to the Wolong Reserve in

Sichuan Province Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, where she was reportedly doing very well. By the end of 2007, she had given birth to 3 sets of twins: male twins Tuan Tuan and Mei Ling on September 1, 2004, male/female twins Wei Wei and Ting Ting on August 29, 2005, and another set of male twins, Hua Long and Hua Ao, on 16 July 2007. After the

2008 Sichuan earthquake An earthquake occurred in the province of Sichuan, China at 14:28:01 China Standard Time on May 12, 2008. Measuring at 8.0 (7.9–8.3 ), the earthquake's epicenter was located boxing the compass, west-northwest of Chengdu, the provincial ...

damaged much of the giant panda facility in Wolong, Hua Mei was relocated to the Bifengxia Panda Base in

Ya'an Ya'an ( zh, s=雅安, p=Yǎ'ān, w=Ya-an) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. The city is home to Sichuan Agricultural University, the only Project 211, 211 Project ...

. In July 2009, Hua Mei gave birth to a single female cub named Hao Hao. Hua Mei delivered her eighth cub, a male named Yang Hu, in September 2010. Then she gave birth to her ninth cub, a female named Jia Jia, in August 2012 and a tenth cub, a male, in July 2013. In July 2018, she gave birth to a set of male/female twins named Yi Yi and Jiu Jiu. In October 2019, she gave birth to a set of female twins named Meng Meng and Jin Du Du.

Notes

External links

Panda Profile at San Diego Zoo

{{Authority control Individual giant pandas 1999 animal births San Diego Zoo

See also

Notes

External links