A female giant panda was born at a zoo in the town of Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, the facility's operator said Wednesday.
The mother panda, Rauhin, 17, gave birth Tuesday morning at the Adventure World zoo, the first new cub born there in about two years. The cub, which was 15.5 centimeters long when it was born and weighed 75 grams, has been placed in an incubator, the zoo said.
The diminutive cub is much smaller than Yuihin, the last panda born at the zoo. Yuihin weighed 197 grams at birth in 2016.
The newborn has only been taking shallow breaths and cannot feed from its mother's teat, the zoo said.
Zoo staffers are watching the cub around the clock.
"We are giving her milk with a syringe because her mouth is too small to drink. We have to carefully monitor the situation," an official said.
Around April, Rauhin was seen mating with a male panda named Eimei.
At 25 years of age, Eimei is the world's oldest male panda in captivity to have successfully produced offspring through natural breeding, according to the zoo.
