It's panda-monium! National Zoo says giant panda gives birth to twins
It’s panda-monium! National Zoo says giant panda gives birth to twins
It’s double trouble for the National Zoo after its adult female panda gave birth to twins. The cubs arrived about five hours apart Saturday. Panda mom Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) gave birth to the first cub at 5:35 p.m. and a second at 10:07 p.m., the zoo said. If the cubs survive, they would be the 17-year-old panda’s third and fourth surviving offspring. Mei Xiang’s first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010. Her second cub, Bao Bao, turns 2-years-old Sunday and still lives at the zoo. The new additions mean that for the first time the zoo has five pandas in residence. In addition to Bao Bao, Mei Xiang and the new cubs, the zoo is also home to an adult male panda named Tian Tian. In the past, the zoo has never had more than three pandas at one time.
We’re very excited, but we’re very cautious.
Zoo director Dennis Kelly
Zoo director Dennis Kelly said at an evening news conference following the first cub’s birth that he was “so happy, so pleased, so excited.” The zoo’s chief veterinarian Don Neiffer was also asked about the possibility of a second cub. In 2013, when Mei Xiang gave birth to Bao Bao, she also gave birth to a stillborn cub. Asked about the possibility of a second cub this time around, Neiffer said that during an ultrasound earlier this week he did see “two areas that made me excited.” The zoo says after the second cub was born, keepers removed one of the cubs and moved it to an incubator. The zoo says it will alternately swap the cubs, allowing one time to nurse and spend time with Mei Xiang while the other is bottle fed. The zoo said it could not confirm whether the cub that was removed was the first or second born. It says pandas give birth to twins about 50 percent of the time, but this is only the third time a giant panda living in the United States has given birth to twins.
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