PARIS — A giant panda on loan to France from China gave birth to female twin cubs early Monday, a French zoo announced, declaring “they are very lively, pink and plump,” AP reported.
The Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, said the twins were born shortly after 1 am. They weigh 149 and 129 grammes (5.3 and 4.6 ounces).
Their mother Huan Huan and father Yuan Zi are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good ties with France. The twins are their second and third cubs after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.
“Huan Huan is taking care of them very well. She took them in her mouth to lick them and clean them. We can hear little cries,” the zoo said in a statement.
The zoo said the cubs’ genders were determined by the Chinese experts in charge of taking care of them but will need to be definitively confirmed since external genitalia does not appear until panda cubs are several months old.
The births come after the zoo announced with great joy in March that Huan Huan and Yuan Zi had “mated eight times.” Veterinarians then carried out an artificial insemination “to have as much chance as possible” to see a pregnancy.
Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and their pregnancies are notoriously difficult to follow.
“We just lived a moment of rare intensity. These births are always very exceptional but they also bring some surprises,” said Delphine Delord, director of the Beauval Zoo.
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