Macao's panda twins meet public one month after birth

Photo taken on July 26, 2016 shows giant panda cubs Dabao (L) and Xiaobao in Macao Special Administrative Region, South China. The female panda Xinxin here gave birth to the twin cubs on June 26. A celebration for the twin cubs' completion of their first month of life is held here Tuesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

MACAO -- The twin brothers born by female panda Xinxin one month ago in Macao now embraced the first batch of visitors in Macao Giant Panda Pavilion on Tuesday. The panda care team said both panda cubs are in good health and grow well.

Unlike their all-pink skin color at birth, now the cubs have their parents' black-and-white appearance. Their ears, eyes, arms, legs and shoulders have turned into black, and hairs become thicker. Only the noses and faces remain pink.

According to the panda care team, the twin brothers can live outside the incubators now. The elder one has grown from 135 grams at birth to over 1,000 grams now, while the younger one now weighed more than 700 grams from only 53.8 grams.

According to Huang Wenjun, a care team member and an panda expert from China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the twin brothers grow well and all are in good health. But given that the younger one weighed less than 54 grams at birth and panda cubs with such light birth weight are very hard to survive, the whole team will continue their 24-hour observation and care for them.

Huang added that the cubs will then open the eyes, grow out primary teeth, start to listen and crawl. They will probably live with their mother Xinxin for next one or two years and then start to live independently.

Macao's Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau said on June 26 that a female panda Xinxin has given birth to a pair of male twin cubs. Xinxin and a male panda named Kaikai were chosen from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province as a gift of the central government to China's Macao Special Administrative Region.