A giant panda on loan to France from China gave birth to two female twin cubs, a French zoo announced.
The Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, said the twins were born shortly after 1am on Monday. They weigh 149 and 129 grams (5.3 and 4.6oz).
Their mother Huan Huan and father Yuan Zi are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good ties with France.
The twins are their second and third cubs after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.
“They are are very lively, pink and plump,” the zoo said in a statement.
“Huan Huan is taking care of them very well. She took them in her mouth to lick them and clean them. We can hear little cries.”
FA-BU-LEUX ! Nous avons l’immense joie de vous annoncer la naissance de 2 jolis petits pandas, nés cette nuit ! Plus d’infos par ici ! ⬇ 😍😉 #BébésPandaBeauval
📷©Eric Baccega https://t.co/M3HgZ2qadT pic.twitter.com/K2NNJHtOw6— ZooParc de Beauval (@zoobeauval) August 2, 2021
The cubs will not be named before 100 days.
They will spend a few years in France before being sent to China, the zoo said.
Other nations in Europe also have giant pandas, including Austria, Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland.
There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and about 500 in captivity worldwide.
China for decades gave friendly nations its unofficial national mascot in what was known as “panda diplomacy”.
More recently the country has loaned pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
