WATCH: Baby panda twins more than double weight after birth
BERLIN, Germany (KMID/KPEJ) – Germany’s two-week-old panda twins born at Berlin Zoo are developing well, according to the zoo on Friday. They have more than doubled their birth weight, currently weighing 510 grams and 450 grams respectively.
The typical black and white panda look is also starting to show, with the once-pink baby pandas now sporting black ears and eye rings, as well as a dark stripe around their shoulders.
The Berlin Zoo said it was cautiously optimistic during this critical time, with panda cub at its highest mortality within the first two weeks of birth and through the first month. This is because they don’t have a functioning immune system yet.
Without human help, one of the cubs likely would not have survived because giant pandas usually only raise one cub when they give birth to twins. So, the zoo stepped in with a team that included visiting experts from China’s Chengdu Research base of Giant Panda Breeding.
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China gifted friendly nations with its unofficial mascot for decades as part of its “panda diplomacy” policy. The country now lends pandas to zoos on commercial terms. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide.
The female twins were born on August 22 to their 11-year-old mother, Meng Meng. Female pandas are fertile only for a few days per year at the most. The twins’ father, 14-year-old Jiao Qing, is not involved in rearing the cubs.
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