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A giant panda named "Xiaoyatou," or "little girl" in Chinese, gave birth to twin cubs at the breeding base in Chengdu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province on October 11, 2019.
The first male cub was born at 1:58 p.m. weighing 176.6 grams, while his younger brother popped out at 4:35 p.m. weighing 131.4 grams.
Born on August 31, 2016, their mother was described by staff at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding as an "experienced mother." This is the fourth time it has delivered. The process was smooth and she immediately grasped and licked the babies.
As of Saturday, a total of 11 cubs have been born at the base this year. The number of captive pandas stood at 548 globally as of November last year. Fewer than 2,000 pandas live in the wild, mostly in China's Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces.
(Cover image is a screenshot from the video.)
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