Panda learning motherhood from videos
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-04 11:54

A Chinese giant panda is being shown videos to teach her how to look after her two young cubs, Xinhua News Agency said.

US-born giant panda Hua Mei licks her cub Thursday at the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre. She gave birth to twin cubs on Wednesday. [Xinhua]

Hua Mei, who gave birth to the cubs on Thursday, is watching the videos to learn how to feed them properly.

"We also play recordings of baby pandas' cries to remind her of her role," said a worker at the Wolong panda reserve in the south-western province of Sichuan.

Hua Mei, whose name means "China America", was born at San Diego Zoo and returned to China in February in honour of a Sino-American research cooperation programme that took her parents to the United States eight years ago.

She was the first giant panda born overseas to be returned to China and the first to be born and survive in the western hemisphere since 1990.

Pandas are among the world's most endangered wildlife, threatened by the loss of habitat and a low reproduction rate.

Nevertheless, the number of pandas in the wild in China has risen by more than 40 percent from 1,110 in the 1980s to the current 1,590, a recent survey showed.

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