A baby panda born in August at the Vienna zoo was baptised as Fu Hu, which means “happy tiger” in Mandarin, with his human godfather at his side, Austria’s economy minister.

Besides Reinhold Mitterlehner, China’s ambassador to Vienna Shi Mingde also attended the official naming ceremony.

In Chinese tradition, Giant Pandas are not officially named before they are 100 days old, because the mortality rate in the first year is so high, at about 40 per cent, according to the zoo.

The name Fu Hu was chosen in a vote on the internet that drew 25,000 participants. The little panda’s name is close to that of his big brother Fu Long (meaning happy dragon), who in 2007 was the first panda to be conceived naturally in captivity in Europe.

Fu Long, now three, has since been returned to China and now lives at the Bifengxia panda reserve in Sichuan province.

Pandas, even when conceived abroad, are the property of the Republic of China and only loaned to foreign zoos.

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