The heaviest pair of giant pandas in the world were born on Saturday at a breeding center in Chengdu in Western China. They weighed about the same as a football at birth. The twin cubs weighed in at 7.5 ounces and 7.4 ounces, respectively, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding reported on Thursday. The average weight of a newborn panda is roughly five ounces.
It took the pair's mother, Po, about five hours to give birth to the pair, after her water broke at 4.47 am local time. The male cub was born first at 7.14 am and the female followed at 9.28 am. The mother at once warmed her newborn cubs, holding them in her arms and licking them as soon as she could recover the energy.
The cubs have an American connection through their mother. Po was born at Atlanta Zoo on November 3, 2010. Originally thought to be male, she was named after the lead character in the movie Kung Fu Panda, which was released in 2008. Po was later transferred to the Chengdu center. The twins’ father, Yingying, and his twin sister also both weighed more than seven ounces at birth, which is highly unusual. Yingying weighed 7.3 ounces and his sibling, Nini, weighed 7.1 ounces.
With the birth of the twins, the center’s population hit 200 giant pandas. The center welcomed the giant panda cub in the world last month. A female panda cub named Cheng Lang weighed just over 1.5 ounces at her birth on June 11. That's roughly one-third of the average weight of a panda cub, according to the center’s chief, Zhang Zhihe. It's also just shy of the weight of a golf ball.
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