Giant panda gives birth to twin cubs at French zoo, but one dies
saint-aignan-sur-cher (France) — The first baby panda born in France is in good health and feeding from its mother, staff at Beauval Zoo said on Saturday, as they came to terms with losing its twin.
Zookeepers were on alert to ensure that the surviving panda cub of twins born on Friday makes it through the touchy first week of its life.
“The first week is the most difficult because it is still very fragile,” the zoo’s chief vet Baptiste Mulot said on Saturday.
But the early signs appeared to be good.
“He is breastfeeding from his mother, we’ll see if we have to supplement that with milk brought by the two Chinese carers...” he added. The Chinese team, from the centre for breeding pandas in Chengdu southwest China, had already given the panda three bottle feeds, giving it somewhere between 1-1.3 millilitres of milk.
Huan Huan “is a very protective mother, which is very good, but that complicates the work of the Chinese carers a bit when it comes to taking the cub away every two hours,” said Mulot.
There was joy and pain Friday as the zoo’s only female panda gave birth to twins, but one died soon afterwards.
Huan Huan, on loan to Beauval zoo in central France from China, delivered the first cub at 10:18pm and the second at 10:32pm.
But soon after birth, the first, which weighed just 121 grams (4.2 ounces), began having problems breathing and died despite the best efforts of zoo staff.
“It was too weak to survive. The Chinese experts, who have experience of this, saw it straight away,” zoo director Rodolphe Delord said.
“Our veterinary teams did everything they could to save it, but it was too small, too weak.” But he said the second twin, which weighed in at a healthier 142.4 grams, was in “perfect health”.
Just as pandas do in the wild, the mother quickly focussed her interest on the second cub, as if instinctively aware that its chances of survival were best. —