Quake panda gives birth to twins

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-08 09:48

Giant Panda 'Guo Guo' holds one of her twin babies in mouth after she gave birth to the twins at the Bifengxia Base of China's Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, in Ya'an, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, July 6, 2008. Twelve-year-old 'Guo Guo' was transferred from the center's Wolong base in Sichuan to the Bifengxia base after a devastating quake hit Sichuan on May 12. [Xinhua]

Giant panda Guo Guo, an evacuee from the southwest China earthquake, gave birth to twins on Sunday, becoming the first panda to bear cubs since the disaster in Sichuan Province on May 12.

She is also the first panda to give birth around the globe this year.

The elder of the two cubs weighed in at 170 grams.

Guo Guo was among the six pandas evacuated from the quake-hit China Giant Panda Research Center in Hetaoping base of the Wolong nature reserve to neighboring Ya'an City in Sichuan last month, as the center is still prone to quake-related geological disasters.

There were 63 giant pandas living in the Hetaoping base before the quake. One was killed in the quake and another is missing.

The surviving pandas have been moved to panda breeding bases in east China's Fujian Province as well as Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.

Huang Zhi, an animal preservation official in Ya'an said 12-year-old Guo Guo suffered an exhausting 100-kilometer evacuation journey during her pregnancy. She has been put under round-the-clock care in Ya'an.

Guo Guo has given three birth three years running.

Twelve pairs of panda twins were born in captivity in China last year, the most since an artificial breeding program started more than 40 years ago.

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