The Beauval Zoo, in central France, was the scene of happy news: on August 2 the giant panda named Huan Huan gave birth to two twin pups that were born in perfect health.
“Huan Huan, our panda, broke waters around 00:30 (local time). Her first baby was born around 01:05 and the second followed a few minutes later,” the zoo said in a press release and detailed that the first weighed 149 grams and the second 128.8 grams.
This is what baby pandas look like 12 days after birth
“Huan Huan is very motherly, styling her puppies and squeezing them against her,” the zoo added. “Huan Huan,” which means “happy” in Chinese, and his partner Yuan Zi, both born in Chengdu, China, arrived in France in 2012, at the age of three.
Huan Huan with one of the pups
In 2017, the couple gave birth to two twin puppies, the first panda babies born in France but the first of them died shortly after their birth. The second survived and was called Yuan Meng, which means “the realization of a dream” in Chinese.
Huan Huan with one of the pups
Newborn giant pandas are more defenseless than most other mammalian babies, because they don’t open their eyes until they’re six to eight weeks old and don’t move until they’re three months old.
The good news is that giant pandas are no longer in danger of extinction, thanks to conservation efforts and the work put into their reproduction, whether for pandas in the wild or in captivity.
