Hong Kong
CNN
—
A giant panda has given birth to twins after more than a decade of successful mating attempts, making her the oldest known first-time panda mother.
Ying Ying gave birth to the cubs in the early hours of Thursday morning on the eve of her 19th birthday – the equivalent of 57 human years, said a spokesman for Ocean Park in Hong Kong.
Photos released by the theme park show Ying Ying just before the start of her five-hour labor and her palm-sized pink twins – the first giant pandas born in Hong Kong.
The cubs, a female weighing 122 grams and a male weighing 112 grams, were finally born after Ying Ying had spent years trying unsuccessfully to mate with her partner Le Le. The two cubs were gifted to the city by the Chinese government in 2007.
“This birth is a real rarity, especially considering that Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda to ever successfully give birth to a cub,” Paulo Pong, chairman of the Ocean Park Corporation, said in a statement.
However, visitors will have to wait a few more months for the cubs to make their official appearance, as the newborns require intensive care around the clock.
“Both cubs are currently very fragile and need time to stabilize, especially the female cub, whose body temperature is lower, who cries weaker and who eats less after birth,” the park said.
Ying Ying had previously suffered a series of miscarriages – and her five-month pregnancy was not easy, the park added.
“Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to reproduce, especially as they get older,” the statement said. “As a first-time mother, Ying Ying was understandably nervous throughout the process. She spent much of her time lying on the ground, squirming.”
Giant pandas only have one fertile period per year, which lasts just one to three days. Since they prefer to live alone in their natural habitat, they rarely mate.
The Peking bear species, native to southwest China, has been trying to increase its population for decades. Extensive reserves have been created in the mountain ranges to save the animals from extinction.
Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, but after years of decline, their numbers in the wild have increased in recent years.
In 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the species from “critically endangered” to “vulnerable” after its population grew by almost 17% over the previous decade.
It is estimated that there are about 1,800 pandas left in the wild, most of them in the mountains of Sichuan in western China. About 600 pandas live in captivity and some of them are loaned by Beijing to about 20 countries.
