Giant panda Meng Meng gives birth to twins at Berlin zoo

The Star

Meng Meng, an 11-year-old female giant panda at Zoo Berlin, has given birth to twins, zoo authorities announced on Friday (Aug 23) night.   Read more at https://tinyurl.com/2prdpmpv  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Zoo Berlin proudly introduced the second set of cubs born to female giant panda Mung-Mung

00:07on Friday.

00:08The cubs, weighing 169 grams and 136 grams and measuring about 14 centimeters in length,

00:15were born at the panda garden and are reported to be in good health.

00:19Giant panda birth is of course very special because very few people are actually able

00:24to witness it because they are with very few on the world and they are with even fewer

00:29in Europe.

00:30So every time there is an opportunity to contribute to the reproduction of giant pandas, you feel

00:37quite honored because you are in a special position and seeing a birth as such overwhelms

00:46you with joy because the birth in itself is actually the success of a long period of hard

00:54working.

00:55The zoo noted that Mung-Mung, now an experienced mother, instinctively knew how to care for

01:00her newborns immediately after birth.

01:03She is really amazing.

01:04Mung-Mung is a kind of panda that doesn't show too much pre-birth behavior.

01:09She's very calm and doesn't really show that anything is going on.

01:14But as soon as her water broke, she knew, okay, there is a time and she started preparing

01:20herself and the environment.

01:22And at the moment the cubs were there, she was immediately very gentle with them.

01:28She took them into her mouth and she took them into her arms to make sure they were

01:33warm and comfy.

01:35She has great mother instincts.

01:38Mung-Mung arrived from China in 2017 and previously gave birth to the first ever twin panda cubs

01:44at the zoo, Mung-Xiang and Mung-Yuan, in August 2019.

01:49This time, after unsuccessful natural mating attempts, she was artificially inseminated

01:55on March 26.

01:57The first signs of a successful pregnancy appeared on August 11, when an ultrasound

02:02detected two heartbeats.

02:04Just 11 days later, the twins were born following a gestation period of 149 days.

02:19For more UN videos visit www.un.org

Category

Transcript

Recommended