Sergei Sobyanin: Muscovites chose the name for the Moscow Zoo’s baby panda

The Moscow Zoo’s baby panda is named Katyusha, more than 380 thousand people having cast their votes within the Active Citizen project, Sergei Sobyanin writes in his blog.

From the very beginning, out of 10 proposed names, there were three leaders, such as Masha, Mo Mo (from the first syllable of the Russian “Moskva”) and Katyusha, the latter having won with a small difference of six percentage points as Muscovites cast 29 per cent of their votes for it.

Now the baby is four months old. She already has many teeth and walks quite well. Recently she has got a scheduled examination, with the weight of 8.67 kilograms and the overall body length (including the tail) of 79.5 centimeters.

“By the way, even a routine screening requires special training and professional skill so as not to frighten or disturb animals more than it is necessary. Katyusha and her mother Ding Ding live in a private enclosure, which is separated by a gate partition. For safety reasons, people should not enter the enclosure where the adult panda is lodged. That is why Ding Ding’s favorite bamboo shoots are placed in one part of the enclosure, and while the mother goes out to have a snack, they close the gate and take her little daughter away,” wrote the Moscow Mayor.

Every day the baby panda grows bigger, stronger and more active, exploring everything around her, sniffing the smells, walking more confidently and even trying to get out of the playpen.

The baby now trusts people and does not ‘bark’ at them, that is, she no longer seeks to scare anybody and, perhaps, even enjoys communication.

Sobyanin trumpets the birth of the first-ever giant panda cub in Russia’s history