Panda Huan Huan gives birth to twin babies at Beauval Zoo (Video)
The touching moment giant panda cuddles her surviving cub after its twin tragically died shortly after birth
Chinese experts and French zookeepers are working to ensure a panda cub’s survival after his twin died during the first-ever birth of the rare animal in France.
Panda mother Huan Huan can be seen enveloping the cub and zoo handlers feeding him in an incubator with a small bottle, in images from the Beauval Zoo, south of Paris.
The pink, hairless male weighing 5oz is tiny compared to his 190lb mother, who gave birth to twins on Friday.
Soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 4.2 ounces, began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff.
Panda Huan Huan gives birth to twin babies at Beauval Zoo -AkademiPortal from Akademi Portal on Vimeo.
‘It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away,’ zoo director Rodolphe Delord said.
‘Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak.’
But he said the second twin was in ‘perfect health’.
Delphine Delord, director of communications and educational programmes at the zoo, said Huan Huan is a very protective mother, which it makes it difficult for the panda experts to check on the baby and supplement his feedings.
Two Chinese panda experts brought colostrum, or early breast milk, from panda mothers in China to help in the crucial first week, Ms Delord said.
Panda births are closely watched because they remain rare – there are only about 1,800 pandas in the wild in China and about 400 in captivity worldwide.
Zookeepers frequently need to help raise the cubs to ensure their survival.
French first lady Brigitte Macron is the baby’s ‘godmother’, Ms Delord said, and she and the Chinese ambassador to France called the zoo on Saturday to congratulate it on the birth.
‘It’s a big diplomatic moment as well as a zoological event,’ she added.
https://youtu.be/X29EX5j8RZI
Tradition holds that panda cubs born in captivity are named by China. Mrs Macron is expected to announce the name officially at a visit to the zoo in the next couple of months.
The zoo had two bits of good news by late Saturday, as the baby urinated for the first time, and his mother successfully began breastfeeding.
Nine-year-old Huan Huan was artificially inseminated from partner Yuan Zi this spring.
Huan Huan (meaning ‘happy’) and Yuan Zi (‘chubby’) are the only giant pandas living in France.
[divider]
