Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

PANDA

Panda at French zoo pregnant with twins

French zoo officials were doubly delighted on Tuesday on learning that their pregnant panda is expecting not one but two cubs.

Published: 2 August 2017 10:32 CEST
Panda at French zoo pregnant with twins
Photo: AFP
A final scan has revealed that Huan Huan, who is on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China with her male partner Yuan Zi, is expecting twins on Friday or Saturday.
   
The impending birth will be the first of a panda in France.
   
It was announced with great fanfare on July 26 after a first scan, which appeared to show the nine-year-old bear — who arrived in Beauval in 2012 after intense, high-level negotiations between Paris and Beijing — was carrying a single cub.
 
READ ALSO:

AFP

But on Tuesday veterinarians assisted by two Chinese panda reproduction specialists noticed a second foetus.

“The problems are only just starting!,” the zoo's director Rodolphe Delord joked.
 
His sister Delphine Delord, the communications director, acknowledged that the situation would be “fragile”, with mothers often known to abandon the second cub.
   
“We're doing everything possible to ensure it goes well,” she said.
   
Huan Huan's carers will place the second cub in an incubator and rotate the tiny bears every two hours with their hundred-kilo mother, Beauval's head veterinarian Baptiste Mulot said.
   
Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult.
   
The female panda is only in heat once a year for about 48 hours. The gestation period for pandas is a mere 50 days.
   
Huan Huan (meaning “happy”) and Yuan Zi (“chubby”) are the only giant pandas living in France.
   
The pair were brought together in February, in the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen. In the end, the zoo performed an artificial insemination.
   
If all goes well with the birth, the cubs will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.

PANDAS

Panda gives birth to twins at French zoo, one cub dies

There was joy and pain for French zookeepers Friday as their female panda gave birth to twins, but one died soon afterwards.

Published: 5 August 2017 09:49 CEST
Panda gives birth to twins at French zoo, one cub dies
Photo: AFP

Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China, delivered the first cub at 10:18pm and the second at 10:32.

But soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 121 grams, began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff.

“It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away,” zoo director Rodolphe Delord said.

“Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak.”

But he said the second twin, which weighed in at a healthier 142.4 grams, was in “perfect health”.

The youngster has been put in an incubator so vets can give first-time mum Huan Huan a helping hand, zoo officials said.


The second of the two panda cubs is fed for the first time. Photo: AFP

Nine-year-old Huan Huan and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived at Beauval zoo in January 2012 on a 10-year loan from China after intense, high-level negotiations between Paris and Beijing — was carrying a single cub.

Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult and this is the first time a cub has been born in France.

The female panda is only in heat once a year for about 48 hours. The gestation period for pandas is a mere 50 days.

Huan Huan (meaning “happy”) and Yuan Zi (“chubby”) are the only giant pandas living in France.

The pair were brought together in February, in the hope they would mate, but it didn't happen. In the end, the zoo performed an artificial insemination.

If all goes well with the birth, the surviving cub will leave Beauval in the next two to three years to be returned to China.

READ ALSO: France to say 'bienvenue' to its first ever panda cub