Saint-Aignan (France) (AFP)
Huan Huan, the female panda loaned by China to Beauval ZooParc (Loir-et-Cher), gave birth to two healthy twins overnight from Sunday to Monday, an AFP journalist noted.
The two little plantigrades, born shortly after 1:00 a.m. Monday, come to enrich the panda family of Beauval, already strong with their father Yuan Zi and their big brother Yuan Meng, born on August 4, 2017.
"The two babies are pink. Both are in perfect health. They look quite big. They are magnificent", reacted the president of the ZooParc de Beauval, Rodolphe Delord, from the control center of the Center de reproduction et de saving pandas.
A caregiver from the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Center, who came especially for the births, managed to seize one of the baby pandas to provide care and place it in an incubator.
This first baby weighed 149 grams at birth.
The second will also be closely examined as soon as one of the two Chinese healers manages to approach him.
At the end of March, the two giant pandas, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, one of Beauval Zoo's main attractions, had tried to mate.
Artificial insemination was also carried out as a precaution, the female panda being fertile only 24 to 48 hours per year.
It was thanks to this technique that Huan Huan had already given birth to her first son.
Now 4 years old, the first panda born in France weighs more than one hundred kilos.
Her twin had not survived the birth.
The two newborns will not have final names for another 100 days.
They will be chosen by the Chinese First Lady, the zoo said.
© 2021 AFP