Nine-year-old giant panda Ai Bang gave birth to a cub Saturday morning at Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in southwest China’s Sichuan province.

Staff at the research center made a live broadcast of Ai Bang available on the Internet from 7p.m. Wednesday after she began exhibiting prebirth behavior. The male baby cub, weighing 145 grams, is the first panda to be born in the world this year. Both the cub and his mother are in good health.

Photo taken on May 6, 2016 shows a male panda cub, the first baby panda born worldwide this year, at Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province. [Photo/Xinhua]

While giant pandas usually give birth in July or August, Ai Bang became pregnant in January and showed prenatal signs in May. Experts say this alteration was because of climate change. The delivery did not go through that smoothly, though, so Ai Bang was pretty fatigued after having her baby.

But she still held the cub tightly while gently licking it. Ai Bang is one of the two twins born to MeiMei in Japan in December 2006. The family returned to China in 2012.