18 panda cubs have birthday party in Sichuan

Eighteen giant panda cubs born in 2018 had a birthday party Thursday in Shenshuping base in Wolong National Nature Reserve, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

All of the 18 cubs are to turn one year old between June to Sept. Most of them were born in the Shenshuping base under the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Staff with the research center prepared a fancy fruit birthday cake for the panda cubs. Fans of the panda cubs were also invited to attend the birthday party.

There are nine male and nine female cubs in total, including three pairs of twins.

Being lively and active, the cubs usually play together, compete with each other for food, climb trees, sleep on tree branches or play with toys.

The cubs are also entering the teething stage where they become mainly reliant on milk. They do however supplement their diet with two meals of tender bamboo shoot tips each day, allowing them to grind their newfound adult teeth.

Their growth indicators are monitored by their breeders at the research center. The veterinarians also conduct regular physical examinations.

In 2018, 31 panda babies, 15 females and 16 males, were born in the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. There are seven twins among them.

So far, the captive population of giant pandas in the center reached 285, accounting for about 60 percent of the total giant panda captive population in the world.

The giant panda was scientifically discovered 150 years ago and named in the city of Ya'an, Sichuan. It remains one of the world's most endangered species.

The number of captive pandas was 548 globally as of last Nov. Fewer than 2,000 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi.