Mei Lan (, ; born September 6, 2006) is a male

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

born at

Zoo Atlanta Zoo Atlanta (sometimes referred as Atlanta Zoo) is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoo in Atlanta, Georgia. The current president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta is Raymond B. King. History Zoo Atlanta was founded in 1889, when b ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, after his mother's,

Lun Lun Lun Lun () is a female giant panda who lived at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. The panda, now , was born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China on August 25, 1997. Her original name, Hua Hua, was changed to Lun Lun by ...

, record-setting 35-hour labor. Originally identified by zoo staffers as female, Mei Lan was determined to be male by staff in China at the Chengdu Research Base of Panda Breeding. He is the first offspring of Lun Lun and Yang Yang, who are also the parents of Xi Lan, Po, and two pairs of twins, Mei Lun and Mei Huan, and Ya Lun and Xi Lun. Mei Lan was relocated to

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

on February 4, 2010.

Naming

Mei Lan was named at a naming ceremony held on December 15, 2006, following the Chinese tradition of naming panda cubs when they are about 100 days old. ''Mei Lan'', which translates as "American orchid" or "beautiful orchid", was submitted by

WSB-TV WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...

, the Atlanta ABC affiliate. The name was chosen from a public online poll on ajc.com after it won 22% of the votes. Many of the names in the poll contain the words "beautiful", "orchid", "peach" or "moon" that are often given to girls in China, because Mei Lan was originally identified as female.

Repatriation

Mei Lan, similar other zoo-born giant pandas in the United States, contractually belongs to

. He left for China on February 4, 2010, on the same flight as Tai Shan from the National Zoo in Washington D.C. He currently resides at the Chengdu Panda Base, where both his parents were born.

References

External links

Mei Lan
at

's website {{Authority control 2006 animal births Individual giant pandas Individual animals in China Individual animals in the United States

Naming

Repatriation

See also

References

External links