Panda twins born at Chinese research unit

A giant panda at a Chinese research centre has given birth to twin male cubs, the second set of twins born this year in the country’s panda breeding programme.

The hairless pink brothers were born yesterday at the Chengdu Research Base in the southwest province of Sichuan, said Huang Xiangming, a base official.

The twins were the third and fourth cubs born this year in captivity in China as part of a government-run artificial insemination program.

China is hoping to speed up the endangered panda’s agonisingly slow rate of reproduction in an effort to save what many regard as a national symbol.

The twins have yet to be named, Huang said. He said the eldest, which was also the biggest at 182 grammes (6.3 ounces), is now living in an incubator. Lab attendants are using bottles to feed him the same type of milk formula given to human babies.

The younger brother weighed 155 grammes (5.4 ounces) and has been left with his mother, 11-year-old Ya Ya.

‘‘Both cubs are in good health. And the mother is in good health,’’ said Huang.

Huang said the Chengdu base, one of China’s largest panda research centres, expects another three or four births this year.

Nationwide, a dozen pandas are expected to give birth this year, the official People’s Daily said.

Pandas impregnated by artificial insemination often give birth to twins. On July 13, brother and sister pair Shen Shen and Ao Ao were born at the Chengdu centre.

The giant panda is one of the world’s rarest animals, with only about 1,000 left in the wild. Reproduction rates have slowed as small groups of pandas are isolated in shrinking patches of bamboo forest.

Experts warn the breeding efforts alone won’t save the panda from extinction in the wild unless more forests are set aside and greater efforts made to prevent logging and poaching in existing reserves.