An Australian koala has given birth to rare twin cubs in a safari park in south China's Guangdong Province.

 

Murry Bridge -- Tao Tao in Chinese -- who is less than two years old, produced twin cubs after a one-month pregnancy in Xiangjiang Safari Park, the only place where visitors can see the cuddly animal on the Chinese mainland.

 

Only 0.1 percent of koala births are twins, experts say.

 

This is the first time koala twins have been born in a safari park anywhere in the world, said Dong Guixin, general manager of the park.

 

There is no record of twin koalas in Murry Bridge's home, the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland, Australia, according to Amanda, an Australian animal expert in Xiangjiang park.

 

Each of the newly born pink cubs was only the size of a shelled peanut weighing less than a gram, according to Amanda.

 

The babies need to stay in their mother's pouch, an external abdominal pocket in which marsupials carry their young, for eight months before being able to live independently. Koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves from that age.

 

The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary donated six koalas, three males and three females, to the safari park in April this year as part of a global koala protection plan agreed upon by Australia and China.

 

The Guangzhou-based safari park was chosen by the Australian government as an ideal new koala habitat because of its climate, fodder and technical support.

 

The park set aside 13.3 ha of land where some 40,000 eucalyptus trees were planted three years ago.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)