Giant panda Fei Fei gave birth to a cub on Saturday night in the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan Province, the center announced Sunday.

This is the fifth panda born at the center this year and both mother and the cub seemed doing well, said Huang Yan, deputy general engineer of the center, adding that they could not know more about the baby's situation as Fei Fei has held it in arms since the baby was born at 8:03 PM Saturday.

The 10-year-old Fei Fei once gave birth in 2001, said Huang.

"We might see more babies to come as seven to eight more pandas might give birth this year," said the engineer.

A female panda normally becomes sexually mature at four to five years old. They only get pregnant once a year, giving birth to one or two cubs at one time.

Panda gestation lasts 83 to 181 days. As pandas mate only in three or four days between March and May each year, they have a relatively low fertility rate.

At the end of last year, 163 giant pandas were raised in captivity throughout China with more than half of them living at the Wolong center.

The number of wild pandas in China is more than 1,590, while another 160 are kept in captivity worldwide.

The Wolong Nature Reserve, founded in 1963, is the largest panda protection zone in China. Covering 200,000 hectares, the nature reserve is world-renowned as the home for pandas.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2005)