Giant panda gives birth to twins at Zoo Atlanta   

中国大熊猫26年来首次在美国动物园诞下双胞胎

Lun Lun, a 15-year-old giant panda, gives birth to twins at Zoo Atlanta in the United States on July 16, 2013.. (CNS Photo)

New York (CNS) — Lun Lun, a 15-year-old giant panda at Zoo Atlanta in the United States, gave birth to twins on Monday.

They are the first giant panda twins to be born in the US since 1987, according to the zoo.

The cubs are products of artificial insemination, and the first twins for Lun Lun, who has three other child pandas at Zoo Atlanta. Their father is 15-year-old Yang Yang, also a resident there.

Zookeepers said one of the cubs is being cared for by Lun Lun while the other is being watched by animal management and veterinary teams at a nursery center. Officials said they would rotate the cubs to ensure that each gets enough maternal nurturing.

The zoo has yet to name the cubs, but will follow the Chinese tradition of waiting 100 days to name them.

Zoo officials are working with animal care workers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where Lun Lun and Yang Yang were born. There was no immediate report on the size or gender of the cubs at birth, nor the condition of the offspring and mother.

Fewer than 2,000 giant pandas remain on the planet. Of these, 300 are in zoos and breeding centers, mostly in China, and about 1,600 remain in the wild in mountain forests of central China.