The deputy president of Zoo Negara, Rosly@Rahmat Amat Lana, said the zoo did not have the right to name the male cub, which was born on May 31 last year.

He said the authority to name the cub lay with the government. “We are waiting for the government’s decision to name the third panda cub,” he told reporters after a media event at the zoo tonight.

“The third cub was first displayed on Oct 1 last year with his mother, Liang Liang. He is healthy and still being breastfed. He weighs 80kg and is very close to his mother. We exhibit them in turns, with the second panda cub, Yi Yi,” he said.

Yi Yi, who is now four years old, is to be repatriated to China. Rosly said his team was still waiting for the green light from the government.

He said the cub had been isolated from her mother for the past two years “because her mother no longer wanted to be with her” and zoo officials feared the cub might be harmed.

Yi Yi was born on Jan 14, 2018 and was supposed to be sent home to China in April 2020. The repatriation was postponed because China’s giant panda conservation centre was closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2020, a government minister said every giant panda cub born in Malaysia was to be sent back to China when they reached the age of 24 months. The first panda cub born in Malaysia, Nuan Nuan, was sent back to China in 2017.

The giant panda pair of Xing Xing and Liang Liang are on loan from China under a 10-year agreement between the two countries.