Panda cub Bao Bao spends more than a day up a tree

Panda cub Bao Bao has become an internet hit after spending more than 24 hours in a tree after being startled by a live wire.

The 16-month-old cub at Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington went up the tree on Tuesday afternoon after touching a wire electrified to keep her in her containment area, zoo officials said.

They said that her reaction was "predictable" and that she was fine, but they decided to let her mother, Mei Xiang, stay with her in the yard overnight and kept a zookeeper in the nearby panda house as well.

Sometime on Christmas Eve, the cub came down, spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said on Thursday, noting that the panda was outside during a rainy period in Washington.

The panda is in fine shape and is used to being wet because it comes from the chilly and rainy forests of China, she added.

Bao Bao's fans took to the zoo's Facebook page to analyse the cub and its mother as the saga unfolded.