The level of cuteness at Berlin Zoo doubled on Monday when two baby panda twins made their public debut. The zoo also revealed that the cuddly furballs were boys. The little ones entered the world on August 31st in the zoo, but according to Chinese tradition they only get their names 100 days later.
Double joy in the Berlin Zoo
In front of a crowd of enthusiastic reporters at the Tiergarten, Berlin Zoo director Andreas Knieriem announced that the cubs would be named Meng Xiang. The former means “long-awaited dream,” while Meng Yuan translates as “a dream come true.” The twins, each weighing around six kilograms, then made their long-awaited first appearance in front of the world's media.
They sat close together on a heated mattress in a glass-panelled “panda bed.” One of the boys appeared half-asleep and unfazed by the attention, while his more active brother repeatedly turned away from the press, drawing laughter.
But the general public will have to wait a little longer to see the zoo's newest stars. The cubs will be kept away from visitors "until they can walk properly" and are more familiar with their surroundings, Knieriem said, likely in early 2020. The birth of the cubs has delighted Berlin's oldest zoo, as it is notoriously difficult to breed pandas - and twins are even rarer.
Adorable twin babies
Her mother Meng Meng and the male giant panda Jiao Qing came to Berlin in June 2017. China lends panda bears to zoos around the world. So it's a program that people often refer to as "panda diplomacy." The Berlin Zoo is paying $15 million (13.5 million euros) for a 15-year contract to house adult pandas. Most of the money goes primarily to a nature conservation and breeding research program in China.
Although the twin babies were born in Berlin, they remain “Chinese” and must be returned to China within four years of being weaned by their mother. According to the environmental group WWF, there are 1,864 pandas still living in the wild in China. At the end of the 1970s there were still around 1,000. Just over 400 pandas live in zoos around the world, in conservation projects set up with Beijing. The species is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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