Panda relocated after China's earthquake gives birth to twin cubs

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Panda relocated after China's earthquake gives birth to twin cubs. Photo: EFE

A panda who was relocated following China's deadly earthquake in May gave birth on Sunday morning to twin cubs, a state news agency said.

Guo Guo was the first panda to give birth since the 7.9-magnitude quake that rocked the Sichuan province on 12 May, killing nearly 70-thousand people and leaving five million homeless, Xinhua News Agency reported.

One cub weighed six ounces (170 grams), Xinhua said. Guo Guo was cuddling the other cub and staffers at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base were not able to weigh it. The report did not give the sex of the twins.

Twelve-year-old Guo Guo was moved to the Bifengxia Panda Center after the quake caused heavy damage at the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's main panda breeding center where Guo Guo normally resides. Wolong, tucked in the lush mountains of Sichuan province, was close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

One panda at Wolong was killed and another remains missing. The Wolong reserve is at the heart of China's effort to use captive breeding and artificial insemination to save the giant panda, which is revered as an unofficial national mascot.

Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity, many of them at Wolong, and scores have been loaned or given to zoos abroad, with the revenues helping fund conservation programs.