Twin Cubs Born In Giant Panda Research Center In China

Fuzzy and hairless, a newborn panda resembles a rodent more than the large and multicolored bear it will grow up to be. Super young pandas may not be cute or appealing-looking, but things do begin looking up for the youngsters after a few weeks, and besides, they are still an endangered species, and it’s great news when a new baby panda is born. Recently, a Chinese Conservation and Research Center was lucky enough to be present for the birth of twin pandas, the first pair of endangered species born in the world in 2013.

The pair of baby panda cubs were born on Saturday at the The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. The two cubs were born only 10 minutes apart from one another at the compound, which is located in Sichuan. According to the International Business Times, both panda babies are female and both weighed under 3 ounces at birth, with the first cub weighing in at 2.79 ounces.

The birth of the two twins is even more impressive, considering how tough it is for a female panda to get pregnant. Female pandas are only fertile for a super short time span of between two and seven days each year. The pair of cubs was born to a panda named Haizi, who mated with pandas named Bai Yang and Yi Bao in March. By the end of May, she was reportedly all geared up to pop out the two cubs.

Even with the short window related to mating, Haizi’s twin panda success story might make it seem like pandas have little trouble mating. Animal Planet actually has written a fascinating article on the topic, which uses real world examples of problems pandas have when mating. Beyond the short pregnancy window, pandas are often separated by gender and males don’t compete for females. Luckily, advancements have been made in recent years and this week’s panda birth story has so far been a success.

In the video above, courtesy of USA Today you can see scientists at the China Conservation and Research Center taking a look at the mother panda, as well as handling the baby panda they were able to take away from the mother to check up on. The second female cub has yet to be released from the mother’s arms.

Panda cubs are certainly among the ugliest of all nature’s creatures, but at least they grow up to be cute, unlike raccoons, which just stay ugly for life.

Photo Credit@ Shutterstock/ nattanan726