--- title: New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo description: Mei Xiang, a giant panda, is in labor and zoo officials say she could give birth in 24 hours if all goes well. canonical: https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-22T20:03:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:44.267Z og:title: New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo og:description: Mei Xiang, a giant panda, could give birth in 24 hours if all goes well og:url: https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc1d8e500227b7c/69886083f887dc8790e9203d/2015-08-10t190912z_463406583_waseb8a12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6016 og:image:height: 3384 og:image:alt: Giant Panda Mei Xiang snacks on bamboo at the Snithsonian's National Zoo in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo twitter:description: Mei Xiang, a giant panda, could give birth in 24 hours if all goes well twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc1d8e500227b7c/69886083f887dc8790e9203d/2015-08-10t190912z_463406583_waseb8a12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 22, 2015 8:03 PM UTC  Giant Panda Mei Xiang snacks on bamboo at the Snithsonian's National Zoo in Washington on April 19, 2015. Giant Panda Mei Xiang snacks on bamboo at the Snithsonian's National Zoo in Washington on April 19, 2015. Smithsonian's National Zoo—Reuters  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 22, 2015 8:03 PM UTC Panda lovers are on [baby watch](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/22/thousands-protest-outside-planned-parenthood-clinics-around-the-country/?tid=sm%5Ftw) at Washington D.C.’s National Zoo. Mei Xiang, a giant panda, is in labor, the Washington _Post_ reports, and zoo officials say she could give birth in 24 hours if all goes well. The female panda was loaned to the zoo after being born in Sichuan, China. She’s had two cubs already, born in 2005 and 2013, and has also given birth to both a stillborn cub and a panda that died several days after being born. Her experience highlights the fragility of panda newborns, and zoo officials are keeping close watch on the expectant mother using the zoo’s “pandacam.” Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated twice in April with semen from the Zoo’s male panda, Tian Tian, and a male panda from a research center in Wolong, China, who was found to be a good genetic match for the expectant mother. \[[_Washington_ _Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/giant-panda-preparing-to-give-birth-national-zoo-says/2015/08/22/bba0fd2c-4804-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3%5Fstory.html?tid=sm%5Ftw)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/"},"headline":"New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo","datePublished":"2015-08-22T20:03:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:44.267Z","description":"Mei Xiang, a giant panda, could give birth in 24 hours if all goes well","url":"https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc1d8e500227b7c/69886083f887dc8790e9203d/2015-08-10t190912z_463406583_waseb8a12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fc1d8e500227b7c/69886083f887dc8790e9203d/2015-08-10t190912z_463406583_waseb8a12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Giant Panda Mei Xiang snacks on bamboo at the Snithsonian's National Zoo in Washington","caption":"Giant Panda Mei Xiang snacks on bamboo at the Snithsonian's National Zoo in Washington","creditText":"Smithsonian's National Zoo—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4007295/panda-new-born-national-zoo/","name":"New Panda May Be Born Soon at National Zoo"}}]}] ```