Southwest China's Kunming city, capital of Yunnan Province, is soliciting names for a panda cub born after the devastating May 12 earthquake last year, said sources with the Yunnan wildlife park on Thursday.
From Feb. 26 to Mar. 4, Kunming citizens can send their favorite names to the website: qsyn2007@126.com. On Mar. 7, a group from the Wolong Panda Breeding Base will visit the zoo and publish the winning name.
The cub was one of the twins born at 11:30 p.m. on July 26, 2008. Its mother is an 18-year-old panda named Snow.
The cub weighed 104.5 grams after birth. It has now grown to 12.4 kilograms.
The Yunnan wildlife park published the contest on the Internet, calling on citizens to share their ideas and give the cub a name.
Kunming is among eight Chinese cities that earned the right to name a cub because of its financial aid to the Wolong Panda Breeding Base.
The base was damaged in the earthquake, and pandas were removed to eight other cities, namely Beijing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Kunming, Fuzhou, Zunyi, Wuhan and Guangzhou. These pandas will stay in their new homes for two years.
A total of 15 panda cubs were born at the Wolong Panda Breeding Base after the disaster. Only 13 survived. Since five already had names, officials from Wolong decided to give naming rights to the remaining cubs to the eight cities which supported them.
The Yunnan wildlife park donated 1.5 million yuan and adopted three panda cubs.
(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2009)
