Enlarge image
Panda twins in Tokyo
Photo: Tokyo Zoological Park Society / dpa
In June, two pandas were born at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo.
Now the twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei have been shown to the visitors of the zoo for the first time.
On Wednesday they both crawled around on a climbing tree and nibbled on leaves.
The birth of twin pandas is rare.
The joy of the Japanese is all the greater.
At first, however, they only get to see the little ones for three days.
Because of the corona pandemic, the zoo limited the number of visitors to the enclosure and held a lottery.
The first lucky winners were already there at five in the morning.
Five hours later, they were finally allowed to enter the panda enclosure.
Each visitor got to see the zoo's two stars for about a minute.
“They were fluffy and cute.
It was a miracle that I could see them, «the media quoted the first visitor.
Due to the increasing number of infections, all the other facilities of the city's oldest zoo remained closed except for the panda enclosure.
A total of 1080 randomly drawn visitors can see the two twins, who now weigh 13 to 14 kilograms, until Friday.
She gave birth to 16-year-old Shin Shin in the early morning hours of June 23rd.
The news had boosted the stock prices of nearby restaurants.
The Japanese love pandas, and so the shopkeepers are hoping for increased visitor numbers.
The two twins have another sibling.
Shin Shin and Ri Ri, who is the same age, are also parents of four-year-old Xiang Xiang.
The giant pandas had already had offspring in July 2012, but the baby died of pneumonia after six days.
Shin Shin and Ri Ri were loaned out from China in 2011.
ala / dpa
