The babies were born at 1.03pm and 2.09pm on Thursday, just 11 days after tests confirmed that mum Meng Meng, 11, was pregnant.
Berlin Zoo announced on Friday the birth of twin pandas, the offspring of giant panda Meng Meng. This is the second time that the animal, a long-time resident of the German zoo, has given birth to twins.
The cubs were born at 1.03pm and 2.09pm on Thursday, just 11 days after tests confirmed that 11-year-old Meng Meng was pregnant. The sexes ‘have not yet been determined with certainty’.
‘Both cubs are in good health and are being lovingly cared for by their mother and the experienced team specializing in pandas. Now it’s time to cross our fingers during the first critical days,’ reads the statement from Berlin Zoo.
The twins weigh just 169 grams and 136 grams and both measure around 14 centimeters in length and, like ‘other large bears, giant pandas were born naked, deaf, blind and pink’ because ‘the typical black and white panda design only develops later’.
‘I’m relieved that they were both born healthy,’ said the zoo’s director, Andreas Knieriem, quoted in the press release.
The animals are staying ‘alternately’ with their mum ‘every two or three hours’ because ‘giant pandas normally only raise a cub when they have twins’. When they’re not with their mum, the twins are looked after by their own team, with the co-operation of two specialists from the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding.
Meng Meng and male panda Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. In August 2019, Meng Meng gave birth to twins Pit and Paule, also known by the Chinese names Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, who were the first giant pandas born in Germany.
Leave a Reply