The first giant panda cub in captivity born this year in the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda is now over two months old and in robust health at the center’s Wolong Shenshuping Base in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
Her mother, the seven-year-old En En and a first-time parent, delivered her on June 4, and the cub weighed 243.9 grams at birth. As of mid-August, she tips the scales at 3,070 grams, with all developmental indicators reported as normal.
Inside the base’s breeding enclosure, En En munches steadily on bamboo while her cub lies flat on the ground nearby, punctuating the calm with an occasional yawn and stretch.
After feeding, the mother scoops the cub into her mouth, cradles it against her chest and gently licks it clean, a routine she has mastered despite being a green hand.
"This was En En’s first delivery. When the cub came out crying, En En was a little startled by the sound at first, but she adjusted quickly, picked the cub up in her mouth and shielded it, showing her strong maternal instinct by nature," said Zhang Le, a keeper at the center.
En En can now independently perform all the cub-rearing tasks including nursing, stimulating the cub to defecate, and watching over her offspring.
China is taking systematic action to protect its national treasure. The wild giant panda population in the country has grown from about 1,100 in the 1980s to nearly 1,900 in 2025.
By the end of 2025, China's captive panda population had reached 808.
First-time mother panda learns to raise cub
Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Iturup, a Far Eastern Kuril island known in Japan as Etorofu, was a signal to the United States and NATO that the status quo in the Far East is not open to negotiation, a Russian scholar said.
Russia and Japan have a longstanding territorial dispute over Iturup and three other Russian-controlled islands off the coast of Japan's northern Hokkaido prefecture. The four islands are known as the Southern Kuril Islands in Russia and as the Northern Territories in Japan.
Iturup is one of the Southern Kuril Islands, which have long been a source of friction in Russia-Japan relations.
Putin made his first personal visit to Iturup on Thursday. The trip drew criticism from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who said it "offends the feelings of the Japanese people".
Andrei Fesyun, deputy director for research at the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University, said the timing of the visit was linked to Putin's inspection of naval exercises.
"The timing was indeed good, I mean. This came during an inspection of naval exercises in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. Everything there is quite close together. At times like this, the commander-in-chief is usually based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Iturup is not far away. Of course, this was not a signal to Japan. It was a signal first and foremost to the United States and NATO. The existing arrangements in the Far East are not subject to change. They will not be up for negotiation and will be defended by every possible means. That is essentially what the Russian president wanted to convey," Fesyun said.
Fesyun described Russian-Japanese relations as complicated, saying Japan appeared unwilling to improve political ties even as it continued to purchase Russian energy resources.
"Russian-Japanese relations are a very complicated matter because, by and large, everything depends on Japan. Japan does not appear interested in improving political relations, although it continues to buy Russian resources -- mainly gas, oil and coal. It does not appear ready to give them up," Fesyun said.
Putin's Far East visit sends message to US, NATO: Russian expert
