Welcome to the world: First glimpse of twin baby pandas just hours after they were born at Chinese breeding centre

  • Celebrations come after the sad death of a panda cub in Tokyo earlier this week

Published: 12:59 EST, 12 July 2012 | Updated: 13:49 EST, 12 July 2012


Newborn panda twins have sparked a double celebration at a research centre in China, the first pair to be born there this year.

And tired mother Xi Mei is equally as bowled over by her tiny cubs, refusing to let one of them free from her embrace.

So small they can fit in the palm of a hand, the twins were born 26 minutes apart on Wednesday morning at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda.

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The second of the two tiny pandas born at the research centre in China on Wednesday

The second of the two tiny pandas born at the research centre in China on Wednesday

A keeper removes one of the twin panda babies from mother Xi Mei while she clutches on to the other

A keeper removes one of the twin panda babies from exhausted mother Xi Mei while she clutches on to the other

Covered with a thin layer of white fur and with their eyes still tightly closed, the two are clueless to the fuss that is being made around the world over their arrival.

The second-born is a female, born at 4.47am and weighs about 154 grams, but staff have yet to identify the gender of the first which is still being held close by its mother.

Conservationists have still not named the pair.

Twelve-year old Xi Mei became pregnant in March after mating with Lu Lu, a male panda selected for breeding by the centre.

Xi Mei previously gave birth to twin panda cubs in 2005 and 2006, as well as a single cub in 2009.

It brings an uplifting note to the panda world, after neighbouring Japan announced the death of its week-old panda cub, the first born in 24 years.

A keeper tends to the one panda that staff were able to take from Xi Mei

A keeper tends to the one panda that staff were able to take from Xi Mei

The tiny panda is wrapped in a blanket and fed by a keeper just hours after it was born

The tiny panda is wrapped in a blanket and fed by a keeper just hours after it was born

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the newborn still has its eye tightly shut with just a think layer of white hair

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the newborn still has its eye tightly shut with just a think layer of white hair

The cub, born at Tokyo's Ueno zoo, died of pneumonia less than a week after its much-awaited birth which was met with huge excitement across the country.

Zoo keepers announced the death the same day the twin cubs were born in China.

The panda's mother, Shin Shin, arrived from China in February 2011 with her partner, Ri Ri.

The two went on view to the public soon after the devastating earthquake and tsunami the following month, providing Japan with some welcome good news, the Guardian reported.

Wolong National Nature Reserve, in the Sichuan Province of China, houses more than 150 highly endangered giant pandas at its China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, which has bred 66 pandas since it opened in 1980.

Seven-year-old female giant panda Shin Shin cuddles her newly born baby in her cage at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo
Female giant panda Shin Shin's new baby is helped to drink milk by a zoological park staff member inside an incubator at Ueno Zoo

Giant panda Shin Shin pictured left with her newborn last week. Sadly the baby panda, also pictured right being fed by staff, died on Wednesday.

VIDEO: Watch the first twin cubs of the year being born in China!... 

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