Belgium's baby panda gets VIP treatment on 100-day birthday

A male baby panda in Belgium, one of about 2,000 giant pandas worldwide, attracted messages from VIPs in China and Belgium as it celebrates its 100-day birthday.

Tania Stroobant, Belgian career of the zoo and Wang Daifu, midwife of Panda P are posing with the baby on the 100th day since its birth, which falls on 9th September. (Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily)

President Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan and Belgian Queen Mathilde sent their personal best wishes, along with hundreds from ordinary citizens.

Parents Hao Hao and Xing Hui live with their cub, still named Baby P, in the Panda Garden at the zoo in Brugelette, about 60 kilometres west of Brussels, which was unveiled by President Xi and King Philippe of Belgium two and a half years ago.

Baby P now weighs 6 kilogram, and weighed in at 171 grams when it was born on the early morning of 2nd June. With an eye to Chinese culture, the zoo has specially decided to mark its 100-day birthday on the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on 15th September and is one of best times for Chinese to arrange celebration events.

"We are going to finalize a name for him that day as well," says Tania Stroobant, one of the zoo's panda carers, during an interview with China Daily.

Panda P mother Hao Hao is seeing Tania Stroobant, panda career of the zoo, to return her baby to the cave after being weighted on the 100th day since its birth, which falls on 9th September. (Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily)

Qu Xing, Chinese Ambassador to Belgium, Marie-Christine Marghem - Federal Minister of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development and Eric Domb, Founder of Pairi Daiza zoo are going to attend the unveiling ceremony of the panda cub's name.

Stroobant, who has worked at the zoo for 16 years, prefers Tianbao out of five options, which is a Chinese name meaning literally "baby of Pairi Daiza zoo." The zoo had listed the five names on its website and social media platforms, asking the public to have their say.

Stroobant has been looking after various animals in the zoo and with the arrival of panda P's parents, Stroobant joined the panda team, together with a Chinese carer named Liu Yang.

Stroobant has become a household name in Belgium because she has been regularly seen standing with the pandas during media interviews.

Since his birth, the panda team has kept a regular diary in French, English and Dutch, tracking every change, however slight, on a daily basis. For example, the baby panda and his mother made the first public appearance after birth on August 6th and twenty-three days later, the little panda could start to crawl.

"He is so lovely and grows extremely well," says Wang Daifu, an experienced panda keeper and also "midwife" for the cub. Wang, from China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda had escorted the giant panda couple to Belgium in 2014 and early this year, he came again to prepare for the birth of Baby P.

Inside a cave-like panda house, where the temperature always stands at 18 degrees, Wang, from Sichuan province, even addressess the panda family in a Sichuan accent. The panda couple, who originate from Sichuan, "can still recognize my instructions," says Wang in his backstage office in the cave.

On his right side of the wall stand several screens which monitor the activities of the panda family. And even Stroobant could keep close watch of them at home because such around-clock monitoring system has been set up.

Wang says everything goes smoothly except that supply of bamboo shoots, which are useful and efficient for the mother panda to produce breast milk but only grow in Europe between April and June, is now a problem. In addition to bamboo, the zoo also uses a specially-made bread, apple and honey supplement.

"And when the mother’s milk is not ample for the baby, we also offer powdered formula for him," says Wang, adding that Hao Hao, an excellent mother, could often feed panda P fully most of the time.

In Belgium, there is only one male and one female panda and it was very hard for them to mate naturally when the female panda Hao Hao wasn't interested during the crucial two or three days every year. "In my view, they are a couple of best friends but not lovers," says Wang, adding that they failed to mate several times.

"So we resorted to the artificial mating program, which is a big success."

It is the first time that six-year old Hao Hao became a mother and so Wang and Stroobant have to help her during the breast-breeding period, which last about one year and half. And after that, the baby and panda will be living their own lives.

According to the loan contract, Baby P will be returning to China at the age of four while the parents will stay fifteen years in Belgium.

"After the baby leaves his mother, we can arrange mating for Hao Hao again," says Wang.

He adds that then the family needs three different rooms in the cave as pandas love to live alone.

Panda P is among the several pandas born in Austria and Spain. Wang revealed that the panda in Edinburgh zoo in Scotland is to give birth to baby this month.

Now, Wang and Stroobant separate the mother and the baby every morning at 9 and then weigh or feed with powdered milk, if it needs. Before 10, the little baby would be returned to the cave and the zoo visitors could have the chance to have a look at him. And the parents usually have breakfast then.

Panda P is weighed and checked every morning by his careers before he is returned to the cave to prepare for the visitors to have a look in the Belgian zoo. (Photo by Fu Jing/China Daily)

But they warn that baby P is a small living creature under great care of his mom. It is possible that Hao Hao turns her back, to sleep or nurse her baby. Or that she prefers to take him back into the backstage nursery.

So the zoo writes on the website that it cannot guarantee the visibility of the animals when the visitors enter the cave. "We do not interfere when mom has an intimate moment with her cub as their well-being remains our priority," the zoo is quoted as saying.

Now, Xing Hui, the father of panda P, feels indifferent towards Hao Hao and Baby P. It seems that he won't show affection to them and every day, he works as usual to interact with the visitors in the open air.

The family has attracted many visitors, especially after the new baby appeared in the public. And the waiting time for the queue is normally one hour.

Everyone loves Baby P.

Slameuldre Eliadine, an elderly Belgian lady who lives 20 kms away from the zoo, says she has kept the photos of panda family and kept close watch on them on television all the time.