Washington Zoo Welcomes Twin Pandas
Local Editor
A giant panda at a zoo in the United States had given birth to twin cubs.
Keepers at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC only discovered Mei Xiang was pregnant during an ultrasound scan last week. The zoo said both cubs appeared healthy.
Giant pandas are one of the most endangered species in the world and are notoriously hard to breed in captivity.
The National Zoo is one of only four zoos in the US to have pandas, which are on loan from China.
Mei Xiang, who has two other offspring, is one of the zoo's star attractions.
It has previously taken months before Mei Xiang's cubs have been introduced to the public.
AP news agency reports that her first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010; her second cub, Bao Bao, is two years old on Sunday and still lives at the zoo.
The panda population is threatened by habitat loss as land is increasingly inhabited by humans, with about 1,800 pandas left in the wild in China.
However, the number living in the wild in China has gone up over the last 10 years.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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