Image Courtesy: Facebook/Trending in China, Flickr/Smithsonian National Zoo
Cuteness overload, times two -- Mei Xiang, a giant panda at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, gave birth to twin cubs on August 22. Both cubs, the first born at 5:35 pm and the second at 10:07 pm, are healthy and doing well.
Right after the birth of the cubs, a team of three panda keepers retrieved one as per the zoo's "Giant Panda Twin Hand-Rearing Protocol" so that it could be properly cared for. The team will make sure that the cubs are swapped at regular intervals to ensure that while one is being nursed by the mother, the other is bottle-fed and safe in the incubator.
National Zoo began tweeting about the birth of the new pandas the moment they discovered that Mei Xiang was in labour. They also tweeted a video of one of the tiny tots undergoing a vet exam.
According to a fact shared in the zoo's press release, giant pandas give birth to twins approximately 50 percent of the time. This is only the third time a giant panda living in the United States has given birth to twins.
The team is now hoping to keep both the cubs healthy. "Our concern now is whether Mei Xiang will allow the panda team to consistently swap the cubs. The team developed a few different strategies and will continue to try different methods of swapping and hand-rearing," they said on their website. "A lot will be dictated by Mei Xiang," they added.
However, Mei Xiang's little babies aren't the only panda tots making the world crazy with cuteness.
Stealing their thunder just a little bit are cubs at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Ya'an City, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. These cubs, born this year, made their grand public debut on August 21 in this adorable photo-shoot.
In case it wasn't clear from all these pictures, the world can do with a lot more of this panda-adorableness.