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Giant panda gives births to twins in Sichuan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-12 16:17

Giant panda Xi Mei (or Happy Girl) gave birth to twins on Thursday afternoon in the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, southwest China's Sichuan Province, sources with the center announced here Friday.

The twins bringing the total number of new born panda cubs to nine this year.

"It's the first time for 5-year-old Xi Mei to be a mother and it's unusual for a first-time mother to given birth to twins," said Zhang Hemin, director of the center, adding that both the mother and the twins were in a good health.

One of the two cubs, a male, weighing 140 grams, was taken awayfrom the mother, as pandas usually only nurture one of their two cubs. Experts will take care of the cub for a period of time before returning it to Xi Mei's care. In this way, both of the cubs can be well nursed by their mother, experts with the center said.

Xi Mei embraced her babies closely with her arms immediately after the twins was born separately at 1:39 p.m. and 1:50 p.m. Thursday. After about twenty minutes, the keepers intervened swiftly and put the second baby into the nursery, said Zhang Hemin.

"Thursday is a wonderful day for our center since another giant panda in our center -- Long Xin gave birth to a cub on Thursday morning," said Zhang Hemin.

A female panda normally becomes sexually mature at four to fiveyears old. They only get pregnant once a year, giving birth to oneor two cubs at one time.

Panda gestation lasts 83 to 181 days. As pandas mate only in three or four days between March and May each year, they have a relatively low fertility rate.

At the end of last year, 163 giant pandas were raised in captivity throughout China with more than half of them living at the Wolong center. The number of wild pandas in China is more than1,590.

The Wolong Nature Reserve, founded in 1963,is the largest panda protection zone in China. Covering 200,000 hectares, the nature reserve is world-renowned as the home for pandas.

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