BERLIN (AP) — Berlin Zoo is celebrating the arrival of its newest panda twins, who are thriving in their new home. The tiny cubs, born last Thursday to 11-year-old mother Meng Meng, spent their initial days snuggling and nursing hourly from their mother.
The zoo is cautiously optimistic about their survival, given the high mortality rate for panda cubs during their first month due to their underdeveloped immune systems. Typically, giant pandas only raise one cub when twins are born, so the zoo has intervened with help from experts from China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, who are currently in Berlin.
While one twin remains with Meng Meng, the other is cared for in a special incubator provided by a Berlin hospital.
“Without these protective measures, the giant panda could very well be extinct,” said zoo director Andreas Knieriem in a news release, emphasizing that “every healthy cub is a significant achievement.”
For decades, China used pandas as diplomatic gifts under its “panda diplomacy” policy, but now loans them to zoos under commercial agreements. There are approximately 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China, with a few hundred in captivity around the globe.
The newborns are currently deaf, blind, and pink; their distinctive black-and-white markings will appear later. The firstborn weighs about 180 grams (6.35 ounces), and the second weighs roughly 145 grams (5.11 ounces). Both have regained their birth weights and are gaining more, which the zoo sees as a positive sign. The cubs’ genders have not yet been determined.
Meng Meng was artificially inseminated on March 26, as female pandas are only fertile for a few days each year. The twins’ father, 14-year-old Jiao Qing, is not involved in the cub-rearing process.
Meng Meng and Jiao Qing arrived in Berlin in 2017. Meng Meng gave birth to her first twins, Pit and Paule (known in China as Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan), in August 2019. Those cubs were flown to China in December, a trip delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic but ultimately fulfilling their initial agreement.