Zoo director Dennis Kelly says Mei Xiang, who is 17 years old, is an ‘excellent mother’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The National Zoo in Washington says its adult female panda has had twins.

The first cub was born Saturday at 5.35pm and the zoo said on Twitter a second was born at 10.07pm. The zoo has said both appear healthy.

National Zoo (@NationalZoo) We can confirm a second cub was born at 10:07. It appears healthy. #PandaStory pic.twitter.com/MH0kmQ32kk

If the cubs survive, they would be the 17-year-old panda’s third and fourth surviving offspring.

Mei Xiang’s first cub, Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010. Her second cub, Bao Bao, turns two on Sunday and still lives at the zoo.

The zoo’s chief veterinarian, Don Neiffer, said earlier in the day after the first cub was born that a second cub was a possibility.

After the first cub – pink, hairless and only about the size of an adult mouse – was born, the zoo said Mei Xiang reacted by picking it up.

“All of us are thrilled that Mei Xiang has given birth,” the zoo’s director, Dennis Kelly, said. “We know Mei is an excellent mother.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Panda pregnancy at Washington DC’s National zoo not so black and white – link to video

The mother panda’s care team began preparing for the birth after they saw Mei Xiang’s waters break about an hour before the first cub was born. They hope to carry out a neonatal exam in the coming days and will not know the cubs’ sex until a later date.

The new mother was artificially inseminated in April with frozen semen from a male giant panda named Hui Hui that lives at the China conservation and research center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan province.

She was also inseminated with fresh semen from the zoo’s male giant panda, Tian Tian. DNA tests will establish which is the father.

Mei Xiang exhibited signs of pregnancy in July that included sleeping more, eating less, building a nest and spending more time in her den.

The zoo said Mei Xiang will spend almost all her time in her den for the next two weeks. The enclosure will be closed to provide quiet, though online “panda cams” provide a video stream of the creatures.

After the zoo announced the first birth, the video feed from her straw-lined enclosure appeared to have crashed, probably due to a high volume of viewers, the zoo said.

On Tuesday, Malaysia announced a giant panda at its National Zoo, Liang Liang, had given birth. The newborn’s sex has yet to be determined.

There are fewer than 2,000 pandas now left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund, as their habitats have been ravaged by development.

Roads and railways cut through the bamboo forests they depend upon in China’s Yangtze Basin, their primary habitat.

Pandas rely on bamboo and eat almost nothing else. Given their low birthrate, captive breeding programmes are key to ensuring their survival.