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Panda in twin cubs surprise

Shanghai Daily via agencies, July 17, 2013

• A giant panda at the Atlanta zoo delivered an extra bundle of joy on Monday when she gave birth to twins, an apparent surprise to zoo officials who had been anticipating the birth of a single cub.

  Giant panda Lun Lun gave birth to twins on July 15. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

  
  
  

  Lun Lun delivered the tiny, hairless duo two minutes apart, the first giant panda cubs to be born in the United States this year, officials said.

  "We had no reason to expect twins, although we had not ruled them out," said Dwight Lawson, deputy director of Zoo Atlanta, adding that pandas regularly give birth to twins.

  "On the few ultrasound images that mom actually cooperated with, we only saw one developing fetus."

  Twin cubs have never been born at Zoo Atlanta, zoo officials said. Lun Lun has given birth to three cubs there.

  The sex of the cubs has not been determined yet, Lawson said. Panda cubs are about the size and weight of a stick of butter, and are pink, hairless and blind.

  Panda babies are about 1/900th the size of their mothers, according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

  While pandas often give birth to twins in the wild, they are only able to raise one at a time, Lawson said.

  But in a zoo setting, staff are able to incubate one cub while the mother takes care of the other, and then swap them so she can have a chance at successfully raising both. "It's physically difficult for the mother panda to manipulate more than one cub," Lawson said.

   

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