The Toronto Zoo was the site of a historic moment early Tuesday as it welcomed the first two panda cubs to be born in Canada.

However, the twin cuddly characters have landed in a situation with all the elements of a complex soap opera — no one’s sure who the father is and this family might be torn apart.

Er Shun, a female giant panda on loan from China, gave birth to the first cub at 3:31 a.m. The second cub was born shortly after, around 3:44 a.m.

“This is huge. It’s massive,” said Maria Franke, curator of mammals at the zoo. “To have a successful birth of twins… it’s a dream come true.”

The tiny tots are about the size of a stick of butter and their pink, almost hairless bodies give little indication of the black and white behemoths they’ll become.

The cubs weighed 187.7 grams and 115 grams and came into the world squawking and squalling up a storm.













“She (Er Shun) was amazing,” said Franke. “Maternal instincts kicked in. She gently cleaned the first cub up, put it in her arms and cradled it.”

Both mother and babies seem to be doing well although the next few weeks will be critical for monitoring the cubs’ health and well being.

It wasn’t romance in the air or even a chance, passionate encounter near a bamboo patch that led to the panda pregnancy.

In fact, scientists had more to do with the birth than the bears did.

Pandas are notoriously prudish and difficult to mate which is a big problem for an endangered species.

Videos of pandas mating — also known as panda porn — have even been used as aphrodisiacs.

According to Franke, this sexual selectiveness is due to the fact that females of the species are only able to mate during a 24 to 72 hour period once each year.

“It’s such a short period of time,” she said. “If you miss it, you’re done for the year… the stakes are really high.”

The zoo first tried to have the bears mate naturally, but as soon as Er Shun started showing signs of estrous behaviour, she became aggressive towards Da Mao, the zoo’s male giant panda also on loan from China.

Rather than risk a domestic incident, the zoo called in semen specialists — artificial insemination experts — who used fresh sperm from Da Mao and frozen sperm from two giant pandas in China.While the successful birth is a major triumph, it does leave the zoo in somewhat of a Jerry Springer situation.

Until DNA tests are done, they won’t know who the father is.

“It’s like, ‘who’s the daddy?’” said Franke. “That’s part of the drama as we move forward.”

Knowing which panda is responsible for reproduction is important for managing panda relatedness and overall health and will be recorded in a panda “stud book.”

On Tuesday, Da Mao did not appear overly concerned abut his potential parenthood. While the first-time mother fed and cared for her new cubs, he spent the morning snoozing in his enclosure.

The cubs have not yet been named, and likely won’t be for 100 days in order to honour a Chinese tradition of not naming them until after the worst of the health risks have passed.

It’s also unknown what gender the cubs are as much of their development takes place after they’re born.

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The Zoo estimates that it will be four to five months before the new babies will be on display for the public.

The giant pandas are on loan to the Toronto Zoo until 2018, at which point they will be moved to the Calgary Zoo. Whether the cubs will remain in Canada is not known, but zoo staff said negotiations with China are continuing.

What’s black and white and cute all over? Not baby pandas — at least not right away.

-Photos and information courtesy of the Atlanta Zoo One day old:

Cubs are tiny when they’re born. In fact, their mother is 900 times larger. Babies weigh 80-130 grams while adult pandas weigh 75 kg. If humans followed the same patterns a 3.6 kg baby would have a mother that weighed 3,240 kg.

One week old:

Black patches start to appear on the cub’s skin. Eventually, black hair will grow giving the bears their distinctive black and white look.

One month old:

A cub’s eyes finally start to open. Babies start to look like miniature adult pandas, but they have a slightly longer tail.

Three months old:

A cub can now stand and take a few steps. It can see and starts to grow teeth.

Four months old:

The panda can run and play. Baby pandas often crawl and climb on their mothers.

Six months old:

Over the next few months the cubs follow their mother and learn to eat bamboo as their main food. They climb trees and are very playful.

Panda sneeze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E63ExmhOk8g