Shin Shin pregnant, shortly before giving birth to her twins. Photo: TOKYO ZOOLOGICAL PARK SOCIETY / AFP.
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Good news: Never before in history has a pair of panda twins been seen to be born in Tokyo’s most iconic zoo.
A pair of panda twins have just been born at the Tokyo Zoological Park Society. Her parents are 15-year-old adults and, after several years of trying, they were finally able to give birth to two new pups. The unmistakable sign of her upcoming delivery was that the mother stood to urinate face down against a tree. Shortly after, their little ones would be transported to the zoo’s care center, where they are being monitored.
Foto: AFP PHOTO / TOKYO ZOOLOGICAL PARK SOCIETY.
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In early June 2021, the Tokyo Zoo announced that one of its pandas was pregnant. Ri Ri and Shin Shin are the two giant pandas who just became new parents. After four years of trying – between long courtship rituals and unsuccessful mating – she was finally able to conceive and give birth to twin babies.
Almost 30 days after the institution revealed the news, this Wednesday Shin Shin became a mother. At midnight, an hour and a half apart, the two brothers were born with no more than 124 grams of total weight. Although the sex of the pups has yet to be determined, veterinarians handling the case are hopeful that they will grow up healthy and strong in the coming weeks.
Foto: TOKYO ZOOLOGICAL PARK SOCIETY / AFP
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This is not the first time the zoo has celebrated the birth of baby pandas. In contrast, the last time news of a new baby was announced was in 2017, with the arrival of Xiang Xiang. However, the director of the institution, Yutaka Fukuda, was publicly moved by this ‘pleasant surprise’:
“When the first one was born, I was relieved,” Fukuda said during a news conference Wednesday morning. “When I received a report on the second, I was shocked and extremely happy.”
The problem is that, When two babies are born at the same time, pandas tend to only care for one of them. For this reason, the veterinarians were aware of which of the two would be left aside, to prevent him from losing his life without the care of his mother. The strategy is simple: while Shin Shin feeds one of them, the other will remain under the heat of an incubator.
However, lThe idea is that both can be fed naturally, as far as possible. Although it is not the first time that panda cubs have been born at the zoo, they have never been twins before. Much less for the natural courtship of both parents. From now on, the new puppies will be given Japanese names and will be under close observation by their caretakers.
Foto: TOKYO ZOOLOGICAL PARK SOCIETY / AFP
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(With information from National Geographic)
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