Washington ? The National Zoo’s giant panda cub is male, weighs just under 2 pounds and is a foot long, according to a veterinarian who examined the newborn Tuesday morning.

The cub’s heart and respiratory rates indicate that he is in good health, zoo associate veterinarian Sharon Deem said in a statement. He weighs 1.82 pounds, nearly four times what he probably weighed at birth.

Until now, zoo staff had only been able to view the cub on a camera in the birthing den that is also connected to the Internet for the world to see. But Tuesday morning, when mother Mei Xiang left the birthing den to eat bamboo in a neighboring room at the Panda House, Deem, assistant curator Lisa Stevens and panda keeper Laurie Perry gave the cub a nine-minute exam.

Zoo staff have been waiting until the mother left the cub regularly for several minutes at a time so they could close the door to the birthing area and examine the young panda without causing Mei Xiang undue stress.

The cub was born July 9.