Germany: Panda cubs at Berlin Zoo open eyes

Berlin Zoo issued a progress report on two of its newest animals, a pair of female panda cubs born to repeat mother Meng Meng in August, saying that the two animals had opened their eyes and were starting to become recognizable as young pandas.

The zoo said in a press release that the first-born had already started opening its eyes over the weekend, and that by Monday both cubs were starting to use them. 

"How advanced the sight of the twins is at the present moment is not clear. What's sure, though, is that their sight will continually improve in the coming days and weeks," the zoo said. 

Both cubs were said to be responding "attentively and curiously" to their surroundings. 

Now more recognizable as pandas, rather than pink furless mammals

"Our panda twins are now 48 days old," zoo director Dr. Andreas Knieriem said. "Between the 40th and 50th days cubs generally open their eyes — so the timing of this milestone fits perfectly." 

Knieriem also alluded to the cubs starting to develop their trademark black and white fur and other features marking them out as pandas over the past weeks. 

"In the mean time both of them are really proper youngsters," Knieriem said. "They tip the scales at around 2.230 and 2.315 kilograms (roughly 5 pounds). Our guests will be able to convince themselves of this with their own eyes starting next week."

The zoo plans to put one of the young pandas on show for one hour each afternoon starting next Monday, October 16, in the facilities Panda Garden. 

"They will be rotating — while one youngster will be behind the scenes with mother Meng Meng, the other will cuddle up in the panda bed in the indoor facility," the zoo said. 

Names still pending

The zoo had already said it would be helping Meng Meng, who has given birth to two pairs of cubs during her stay in Germany, with the youngsters. Pandas that bear multiple cubs in the wild tend to raise only one and abandon the other. 

The panda cubs have not yet been named, a process in which the Chinese government may wish to play a role as the animals' owners.

Meng Meng became pregnant via artificial insemination, but with her companion at Berlin Zoo, Jiao Qing, the donor. Encouraging pandas to breed, even in captivity, is notoriously difficult, and there's only a very short window of around 72 viable hours in which to conceive each year.

The adult pair already sired the twins Pit and Paule in 2019, who have since returned to China. These four giant panda cubs are the only ones ever to be born in Germany.

Endangered species, but making a modest comeback in recent years

China has for years loaned pandas to zoos and similar facilities around the world as part of what was once nicknamed "panda diplomacy;" these days it does so in exchange for symbolic payment. 

The animals hail from the specialist sites in China trying to bolster numbers of the endangered species in partly controlled and monitored environments, sometimes with a bid to reintroduce them into the wild as adults.

A census in 2014 found that there were 1,864 giant pandas still living in the wild. This "represents a real success story," according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which notes that in the late 1970s, the wild population was estimated to be around 1,000. 

Between panda centers in China and zoos the world over, roughly 650 more giant pandas live in captivity.

msh/wmr (dpa, open sources) 

An earlier version of this article said the genders of the female pandas had not been revealed. This has been corrected.