A giant panda named Xin Xin has given birth to twins in the Chinese region of Macau.
Xin Xin delivered two male cubs on Sunday at the Giant Panda Pavilion, the first pandas to be born in the entire region, according to the Daily Mail.
While the mother and the larger cub were healthy, the smaller cub was put in intensive care because he was underweight. The cubs are both under round-the-clock surveillance.
In other news - A giant panda in Macau has given birth to twins, the first pandas to be born in the Chinese region. https://t.co/m1IcFFNM6u
— Nochex Will (@Nochex_Will) June 27, 2016
Both Xin Xin and her mate, Kai Kai, were gifted to Macau by mainland China last year.
The world is disintegrating. Our markets are in free-fall. Here’s a baby panda #brexit#eupic.twitter.com/MmlBgrYavK
— Berlin Cameron (@BerlinCameron) June 24, 2016
Pandas are universally loved and adored. They’re also on the brink of extinction, which is why it’s important to protect the remaining pandas. While they’ve been in existence for almost 20 million years, less than 2,000 pandas exist now.
Giant panda cubs are extremely rare, since female pandas are only fertile around two or three times a year.
In an attempt to increase the panda population, Xin Xin was artificially inseminated with Kai Kai’s sperm.
Contrary to popular belief, everything in panda-world isn’t just black and white. Baby pandas are actually born pink, blind, and toothless. They sometimes weigh less than 1/800th of their mother’s weight, and it takes about a month for the cub’s color pattern to develop.
A newborn male giant panda cub is seen inside an incubator at a giant panda breeding center in Chengdu, Sichuan Pro… pic.twitter.com/aasneOskWs
— Cute Animals (@AnimalsReddit) June 16, 2016
Mother giant panda Aibang is seen with her newborn cub at a giant panda breeding center in Chengdu, China, May, 2016 pic.twitter.com/luVYafjryB
— CENİN (@ceninvoncatlien) June 23, 2016
De babypanda van Pairi Daiza is niet langer een "klein roos worstje"https://t.co/dsROdGwQeWpic.twitter.com/gAKvGuegTX
— VTM NIEUWS (@VTMNIEUWS) June 20, 2016
Captive pandas are furry, adorable, friendly, and lovable creatures. However, their wild counterparts, while still adorable, are not as friendly. Wild pandas don’t behave like captive ones; their teeth are regularly honed due to a diet that consists mostly of bamboos. When aggravated, their bite can be fatal.
But they play a key role in China’s bamboo forests, which is their natural habitat. Pandas spread seeds that help vegetation spread and grow across forests, providing food for other endangered species like dwarf blue sheep and golden snub-nosed monkeys, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Studies in the last few decades have indicated that pandas tend to reproduce more in the wild, which is why it is important to release captive pandas from zoos into panda reserves, where they are able to live in their natural habitat.
They naturally inhabit the mountain forests of southwest China, where Chinese authorities have now set up 40 panda reserves. In a victory for the endangered species, panda numbers have increased by 16.8 percent in the last ten years.