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City’s boy-girl panda twins celebrate one-month-old birthday
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THE first pigeon-pair panda born in Shanghai are healthy and energetic as they are one month old today, and the Shanghai Wildlife Park will start soliciting names for them from the public, park operator announced today.
They met each other for the first time since birth today, and experienced a physical examination at the park, which hosts a giant panda preserve.
The cubs, born as fluff balls, are chubby and active now. They have grown black-and-white fur and now have the classic “panda eyes.”
The elder male giant panda, weighs 1,350 grams, and his younger sister weighs 1,168 grams.
Their arms and legs are strong and all index shows they are healthy, said Ni Li, a park employee.
They were born on October 4 with an interval of 16 minutes. They weighed 131.5 grams and 113.2 grams respectively when they were born.
After You You, the mother, gave birth to the male cub on 4:30pm, she held him immediately and started breast feeding.
But she ignored the newborn girl at all because it is the nature of giant panda mother to pick the stronger one to foster in the wild if a twin panda is born, which is the "breeding strategy" of the species to ensure survival rate, Ni said.
Animal keepers took the newborn female cub out immediately and started artificial feeding.
Because she was in poor health upon birth, animal keepers conducted round-the-clock observation and nursing on her.
After 10 days, she was in a stable condition.
The pair now takes turns on breast feeding and artificial feeding. But visitors need to wait before they can greet the twin.
"It takes time for the pair to say hello to visitors because they are still too young," Ni said.
The mother You You was pregnant when she was brought to the park from the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong in Sichuan Province.
The park was established as a giant panda reserve by the State Forestry Administration of China in March to expand the population of giant pandas. There are also reserves in Beijing and Guangzhou.
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