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Baby Panda Named Mei Lan

Posted: 5:49 am EST December 15, 2006Updated: 2:55 pm EST December 15, 2006

The country's newest giant panda cub has a name -- Mei Lan, which means "Atlanta Beauty."

The moniker was the top vote-getter in an online poll at The Atlanta Journal-Constitutioin's Web site. WSB-TV submitted the name to be voted upon. Channel 2's audio engineer, Johnny Hsu, came up with the name.

Zoo officials say some 57,000 votes were cast.

The ten names included in the poll were chosen by the zoo, local media organizations and residents in the Sinchuan Province of China -- where the cub's parents were born.

The panda now weighs about 12 pounds and is 26-point-five inches long. She stood up for the first time on her own last week and will have her public debut once she can walk -- most likely later this month or in early January.

She and her mother -- Lun Lun -- will remain in seclusion until then. The pair didn't even make an appearance during today's ceremony.

The father -- Yang Yang -- is being kept apart from mother and baby -- as is normal in the wild.

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