The “cake” was made from frozen fruit juice, sweet potatoes, carrots and sugar cane and it lasted about 15 minutes once giant panda mama Mei Xiang and her cub Xiao Qi Ji got hold of it
“It was definitely a long-shot pregnancy,” said Bryan Amaral, the zoo's senior curator for mammals.
“I know how passionate people are about pandas," Amaral said. “I'm not surprised by that passion at all.” They watched the cub tumble around, try to wrestle his mom and tear the zero off the giant 50 emblazoned on the ice cake. The zoo's original 1972 panda pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were star attractions at the zoo for decades, but panda pregnancies are notoriously tricky and none of their cubs survived.
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