That's it !
The two baby pandas of Huan Huan, the female panda at Beauval Zoo, were born on the night from Sunday to Monday.
The announcement was eagerly awaited: since Friday, veterinarians and zoo keepers have been watching for the first signs of the big moment, in front of a screen broadcasting the images of Huan Huan 24 hours a day.
The first was born at 1:03 am, the second at 1:10 am.
The female panda had fallen into a deep lethargy as she approached giving birth.
Even the green bamboos, of which she swallows 20 kg every day in normal times, were no longer enough to arouse her interest.
Eyelids closed, on the back or on the side, the star of the park was sleeping, out of sight of visitors, in his night lodge.
The healers have planned an incubator to keep the two future mascots warm.
Despite the featherweight of the babies (a little over 100 g), compared to their mother's 100 kg, childbirth severely tests the organism of female pandas, at the end of an extremely slow and uncertain gestation. After the insemination, carried out on March 20 following the unsuccessful mating of Huan Huan and the male Yuan Zi, the caregivers had to wait three months before they could hope for a birth. In pandas, gestation can be postponed for several weeks, while waiting for optimal conditions: a favorable climate, calm, abundant food.
July 20, victory: the first ultrasound showed a baby, heart pounding, in the middle of a tiny body.
Three days later, caregivers detected… a second baby.
A common twinning in this family of ursids.
But in the natural environment, only one of the two newborns survives the birth, the mother taking care of only the stronger.
At the zoo, the keepers have planned an incubator, to keep the two future mascots warm.
If all goes well.
Read also Beauval's mother panda is expecting twins: the secrets of Huan Huan's new pregnancy
"The birth presents practically no danger for the mother, but for the babies, one is not sure", explained Saturday the veterinarian Baptiste Mulot. He prepared to spend three days in a row at the bedside of the newborns, in these critical hours when their survival is not guaranteed. An intense moment of stress and excitement that the caregiver has already experienced in 2014, when Yuan Meng came into the world, in 2017, the first baby of Huan Huan: "I am going to relive something that few veterinarians know, and I will be in the front row! "
The twins, not yet black and white, measured Tuesday, at their last ultrasound, 6.4 cm by 2.7 cm for the largest, 6 cm by 2.4 for his little brother.
Or little sister.
Impossible to know in advance the sex of the two living cuddly toys, whose portrait already promises to be declined in the shop of the park in many soft toys, mugs, pencils, bags or bodysuits.
If the two babies develop well, the Beauval Zoo will be able to boast of presenting to the public no less than five pandas.
A short-lived record: the living cuddly toys, symbols of the Middle Empire, are "loans" from China, and Yuan Meng, the first baby panda born in France and sponsored by Brigitte Macron, should fly from here a few months to Beijing.
His departure has already been delayed for a year due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
