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It’s A Boy! DNA Test Shows Sex Of National Zoo’s New Panda Cub

On October 5, the National Zoo announced the sex of Mei Xiang’s newest cub. The cub was born on August 21. DNA testing was used to determine it is a boy. This test is the best way to tell the gender since male and female panda cubs look alike. Their outward genitalia doesn’t appear until they are several months old. During a wellness checkup, vets collected a cheek swab from the cub. This was analyzed to find a zinc finger protein gene. The DNA sequence of this gene had both X and Y chromosomes, which meant the cub was a male.

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