Yahoo – AFP, 12 Aug 2014
Hong Kong (AFP) - A Chinese zoo has unveiled newborn panda triplets billed as the world's first known surviving trio, in what it hailed as a "miracle" given the animal's famously low reproductive rate.
Newborn
panda triplets inside an incubator at a safari park in the Chinese
city of
Guangzhou on August 12, 2014. (AFP Photo/Chimelong Group)
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Hong Kong (AFP) - A Chinese zoo has unveiled newborn panda triplets billed as the world's first known surviving trio, in what it hailed as a "miracle" given the animal's famously low reproductive rate.
The mother
panda, named Juxiao, meaning "chrysanthemum smile", delivered the
triplets at Guangzhou's Chimelong Safari Park in the early hours of July 29,
but was too exhausted to take care of them afterwards.
Her cubs
were then put into incubators while Juxiao regained her strength, and have now
been brought back to their mother for nursing and are being attended to by a
round-the-clock team of feeders, the zoo said.
"They
were said to be the only panda triplets that have ever survived," the
safari park said in a statement released Tuesday.
An official
from Sichuan Wolong National Natural Reserve, considered the foremost authority
on pandas, said the trio were too young to be officially recognised as
"surviving" but that they were the only known panda triplets alive.
"We
can only say they are surviving once they reach six months. For now they are
indeed the only surviving triplets," said an official from the centre who
only gave her name as Ms. Zhao.
"The
triplets can be described as a new wonder of the world," Chimelong Safari
Park said, describing mortality rates among newborn pandas as "extremely
high".
Pictures
taken earlier this month of the triplets showed the pink-coloured cubs inside
an incubator with their eyes closed and bodies sparsely covered with white fur.
"The
mother and babies were in good condition, but the adorable newborns were
particularly inspiring," the zoo said.
The gender
of the cubs was not disclosed and they would be given their names at a later
date.
Pandas,
whose natural habitat lies in mountainous southwestern China, have a
notoriously low reproductive rate and are under pressure from factors such as
habitat loss. China has about 1,600 pandas living in the wild.
Their
normal breeding season is mid-April to May.
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