Baby panda!

Mei Xiang had a baby while I was traveling, and this is the first I heard of it!

Bear pregnancies are often difficult to diagnose in advance; their cycles are not fully understood, and they have pseudopregnancies, which complicate the picture even more. I'm not sure when they determined she was pregnant, although they have been monitoring her behavior and hormones for a while. But this is great news--another baby panda in the world!