Baby panda Le Le sleeps through unveiling, probably doesn't even know he's now named Le Le

Same vibe as when guests come to your house for Chinese New Year.

Belmont Lay | December 30, 2021, 01:20 PM

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The first-ever panda cub born in Singapore was christened "Le Le" on Dec. 29.

On Dec. 30, Le Le was unveiled in his brand new nursery located in River Wonders’ Giant Panda Forest. (Tickets to River Wonders are on sale here.)

And it proved to be a funny and anti-climatic moment.

Panda passed out asleep

The curtains went up only to unveil a completely still baby panda sleeping on its face behind a glass partition, completely unaware he is needed very much right there and then.

The two guests of honour, Hong Xiaoyong, who is the Chinese ambassador to Singapore, and Tan Chuan-Jin, deputy chairman of Mandai Park Holdings, could only watch while equally amused at the sleepy bear behind them.

Right before the unveiling, the host, zoo keeper, and panda whisperer said: "Le Le currently still spends quite a bit of time sleeping. He is much like his dad in this aspect. They both enjoy their snooze time."

The zoo keeper added that Le Le will be more active in the nursery in time to come.

Here is a group shot with the motionless baby panda following the unveiling:

Here is a video of that moment during the unveiling:

Continued to sleep

When Tan went to take a closer look at the panda subsequently, it was still sleeping.

Background

The 4.5-month-old male panda's name was crowdsourced from members of the public after the gender reveal on Sep. 10.

Le Le was one of the five shortlisted names for the cub released for online public voting between Nov. 3 and 7.

The five names were: Hóng Hóng (宏宏), Lè Lè (叻叻), Xīn Lè (新乐), Xīn Yáng (新阳), and Xīn Yuán (新缘).

More than 64,000 votes were cast, and the name Lè Lè received the highest number of votes.

Lè comes from the old Chinese term 'Shi Le Po' (石叻坡), which refers to Singapore.

This was in use since our beginnings as a trading port.

Le Le was born on Aug. 14

He now weighs 9.85kg.

He was 200g at birth.

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