Delighted panda cub plays in the snow for the first time

Bao Bao, a giant panda at Washington DC's Smithsonian National Zoo playfully tumbles down a hill as she experiences snow for the very first time

Sixteen-month-old Giant panda cub Bao Bao played in the snow for the first time today at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in the US as a winter storm hit Washington

Giant pandas traditionally live in mountainous bamboo forests in China where it can be very cold and snowy during the winter.

But Bao Bao was born at the zoo in August of 2013 and the cub was clearly delighted at her first experience of winter flurries.

According to keepers, Bao Bao spent her morning tumbling down the hill in her yard, climbing snow-covered trees and pouncing on her mother Mei Xiang.

The storm was part of a bitter cold snap freezing most of the eastern half of the US, driving the mercury below zero in the Midwest, with possible freezing temperatures as far south as Atlanta later this week, forecasters said.

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