From the land of pandas, some new numbers on the crushingly cute animals swathed in black and white.
China says it now has 422 giant pandas living in captivity. Contrast that to 1989, when just 92 pandas lived this way.
Last year saw the birth of 43 cubs. Of those, 40 survived and 28 were twins, says China’s state forestry administration.
Washington had its own birth in 2015, when Bei Bei arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. He’s making his public debut Saturday, Jan 16. Panda births, of course, get celebrated not just for doses of cuteness – but because the animals are notoriously fickle in the baby making department.
China says it wants to up its captive panda population to 500 by the year 2020. The most recent count had 1,864 pandas living in the wild.