BEIJING: A Chinese zoo has unveiled newborn panda triplets billed as the world’s first known surviving trio, in what it hailed as a “miracle” given the animal’s famously low reproductive rate.
The mother panda, named Juxiao, meaning “chrysanthemum smile”, delivered the triplets at Guangzhou’s Chimelong Safari Park in the early hours of July 29, but was too exhausted to take care of them afterwards.
A video from the zoo showed Juxiao sitting in the corner of a room as she delivered her cubs for four gruelling hours and licking them after they were born.
By the time it came to the delivery of the third cub, she was lying on her side out of exhaustion.
Her cubs were initially put into incubators while Juxiao regained her strength but had now been brought back to their mother for nursing and were being attended to by a round-the-clock team of feeders, the zoo said yesterday.
“It was a miracle for us and [the births] exceeded our expectations,” the safari park’s general manager Dong Guixin said.
“It’s been 15 days. They have lived longer than any other triplets so far,” Mr Dong said.
An official from Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve, considered the foremost authority on pandas, said the trio were too young to be officially recognised as “surviving” but that they were the only known panda triplets alive.