Twin giant panda cubs have taken their first steps in public at a French zoo.
After a steady crawl, then a short clumsy slide across a slick stone floor, the female twins finally got moving at their home at Beauval Zoo near Paris.
They were born in August. Their mother, Huan Huan, and father, Yuan Zi, are at the zoo on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good ties with France.
The cubs, named Huanlili and Yuandudu, are the couple’s second and third cubs after the first panda born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.
In a video, released by the zoo on Saturday, the twin cubs are seen clumsily making their way around the territory. At some point both attempt to climb nearby rocks as a caretaker looks on and films them with a phone.
The cubs will spend a few years in France before being sent to China.
French football star Kylian Mbappe and Chinese Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi are the twins’ godparents after the athletes announced the female cubs’ names during a ceremony in November.
There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and about 500 in captivity worldwide.
China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial national mascot in what was known as “panda diplomacy”.
More recently the country has loaned pandas to zoos on commercial terms.
