HONG KONG (AP) — The first panda mother was born in Hong Kong on Thursday. The theme park where the pandas live announced that the mother is the oldest first-time mother of her species ever.
Ying Ying, the mother, gave birth to the twins – a male and a female – at Ocean Park, just one day before her 19th birthday, the park said in a statement.
She and her partner Le Le are the second pair of pandas that China has given to Hong Kong since the former British colony fell under Chinese rule in 1997.
Pandas are widely regarded as the country’s unofficial national mascot, and China’s program to loan giant pandas to zoos abroad has long been known as a tool of Beijing’s soft power diplomacy.
Ocean Park’s statement said giant pandas are “known to have great difficulty reproducing, particularly as they get older,” and pregnancy in pandas is not readily apparent.
Although Ying Ying began showing symptoms such as loss of appetite, increased need for rest and changes in hormone levels in late July, her pregnancy was not confirmed until Sunday. On Wednesday, her care team noticed Ying Ying’s labor symptoms and during the night her water broke. After more than five hours of labor, the babies were safely born on Thursday morning, the park said.
“Both cubs are currently very fragile and need time to stabilize, especially the female cub, whose body temperature is lower after birth, cries weaker and eats less food,” the park said. Visitors will have to wait a few more months for their public debut.
Ocean Park Corp. Chairman Paulo Pong thanked the local animal care team as well as experts from mainland China for their partnership and support over the years.
“The birth is a real rarity, especially considering that Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda to ever successfully give birth to a cub,” said Pong.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee also expressed his gratitude to the central government, which donated the pandas to the financial center in 2007. This shows how much Beijing cares for and supports the city.
Hong Kong has its own government and judicial system, and China passed a national security law in 2020 that is used to prosecute pro-democracy activists.
In July, Lee announced that Hong Kong would receive a third pair of giant pandas from China, with the pair expected to arrive later this year.
The deceased first pair, An An and Jia Jia, were born in 1999. Jia Jia, who died in 2016 at the age of 38, is the world’s oldest panda ever to live in captivity. According to Guinness World Records, the average life expectancy of a panda in the wild is 18 to 20 years, but in captivity it is 30 years.
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