On July 6, a female giant panda called Po, named after the character in the Hollywood animated blockbuster "Kung Fu Panda," gave birth to twin cubs at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
The twins, a male and a female, weigh 211.6 grams and 209 grams respectively. The newborn cubs are now the heaviest giant panda cubs born in captivity on record, having surpassed the average birth weight of 120 grams.
The growth cycle of giant pandas. /Designed by CGTN's Jia Jieqiong
Despite their record-breaking weight, the cubs are only the size of a man’s hand and roughly 0.1 percent of their mother's weight. However, giant pandas gain weight pretty fast, as they pick up all their survival skills before the age of two and reach adulthood at around five.
According to the base, both the mother and the babies are in stable condition.
A two-month-old panda. /VCG Photo
Po was born in the U.S. in 2010 and returned to China in 2013. Although this was her first delivery, she managed it well and was found holding and licking her cubs soon after the process, demonstrating her strong maternal instinct.
(Cover image via VCG)
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