--- description: Giant panda Mei Xiang offered staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo a rare close-up view of her newborn cub on Monday title: Watch a New Video of the Panda Cub at the National Zoo image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch a New Video of the Adorable Panda Cub at the National Zoo  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 1, 2015 11:17 PM CUT  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 1, 2015 11:17 PM CUT Giant panda Mei Xiang offered staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo [a rare close-up view ](https://www.facebook.com/nationalzoo/videos/10153547069667902/ "undefined")of her newborn cub on Monday when she left him alone for a short bathroom break. In the “Panda Cam” footage above, the mother panda is shown putting down her son — not yet named — for the second time since giving birth on Aug. 22, just hours having eaten some sugarcane and diluted apple juice, according to zookeepers. The tiny cub, who has yet to open his eyes or develop black patches of fur, can be seen up close for four minutes before Mei Xiang returns. Mei Xiang had also given birth on Aug. 22 to a second male cub, who died four days later. A paternity test showed the father panda is [Tian Tian](http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/giantpandas/meetpandas/default.cfm "undefined"), one of the National Zoo’s four giant pandas. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4019595/panda-mei-xiang-newborn-cub/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4019595/panda-mei-xiang-newborn-cub/"},"headline":"Watch a New Video of the Adorable Panda Cub at the National Zoo","datePublished":"2015-09-01T23:17:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:24:10.760Z","description":"The mother panda left her palm-sized cub alone for a quick bathroom break","url":"https://time.com/4019595/panda-mei-xiang-newborn-cub/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/4019595/panda-mei-xiang-newborn-cub/","name":"Watch a New Video of the Adorable Panda Cub at the National Zoo"}}]}] ```