Giant panda gives birth to two cubs at Tokyo zoo

(REUTERS) – A month away from the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the city has another cause for celebration: Giant panda Shin Shin gave birth to twin cubs at Ueno Zoo, the first panda birth in four years.

The Tokyo Zoo website indicates that the two pandas were born an hour and a half apart, at 1:03 am and 2:32 am on Wednesday morning. Their sex has not been determined and they have not yet been named.

“All the staff are working together to observe and protect the mother giant panda and the cubs,” the zoo said in a statement on its website about the pandas.

One of the babies weighs 124 grams, according to the statement. The weight of the other is unknown. The hatchlings are roughly the size of an adult human hand, as seen in a photo on the zoo’s website.

Shin Shin was born on July 3, 2005 at the Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center in Wolong, China. She arrived at the Ueno Zoo a decade ago with her male partner Ri Ri. The couple are also the parents of a female panda named Xiang Xiang, born in June 2017.

It is not yet known when the babies will be exposed at the zoo. Shin Shin had been removed from public view since the zoo reopened after its closure due to the pandemic on June 4, when she showed signs of possibly being pregnant.

Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, as females go into heat only once a year and can be picky about their mates.

The pandas are now a family of five. It is very happy news, ”said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, congratulating zoo keepers on the birth.

“I think everyone at the zoo is doing everything they can day and night to make the panda family healthy in the first place, and I hope everyone takes care of them lovingly and calmly.”