The latest news from the Wulong Nature Reserve in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province is that Hua Mei, the American-born giant panda that returned to China on February 12 this year, gave birth to twins on the night of September 1. Hua Mei and her babies all appear to be in good condition.

Attendants have not yet been able to determine the sex of the cubs.

The giant panda, daughter of Shi Shi and Bai Yun, a panda couple leased to California’s San Diego Zoo, was born in the United States in 1999. Hua Mei is the first foreign-born giant panda to return to China.

Her parents went to the United States in 1996 as part of a research cooperation program. Under the contract, cubs of the pair belong to China and must be returned after they are three years old.

Hua Mei is also the first giant panda to be born through artificial fertilization in the United States and survive.

Although Hua Mei has been quite a celebrity since her return, she is not the only new mama at the panda park this week. Fifteen-year-old Leilei gave birth to a single cub early on August 30, and just an hour later a 14-year-old known as No. 20 delivered hers, according to Xinhua.

“Both adult pandas seem to like their babies very much,” said Huang Yan, deputy chief engineer at Wulong. “They have been holding their cubs since birth and won't let them go, so we can’t determine their sex or weight.”

The week’s happy events bring the number of giant panda births so far this year to seven.

Giant pandas have notoriously low fertility rates, so the four births at Wulong were justifiable cause for celebration.

Another cub, born on August 25 to an 11-year-old named Eryatou (“Second Daughter”), died after a difficult 15-hour labor that also endangered the mother panda’s life.

Eryatou is being treated with traditional Chinese medicine, as well as having been examined by ultrasound. Her doctors -- including specialists from the No. 9 People’s Hospital and the Chengdu Municipal Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital -- believe that she is recovering well and should be able to reproduce in the future.

Chinese zoologists have been successful in improving the birthrate of giant pandas in captivity, with more than 90 percent of artificially bred pandas surviving. Sixteen cubs were born at Wulong last year.

As part of its effort to save the species from the threat of extinction, the Giant Panda Research Center in Chengdu has collected somatic cells of 29 giant pandas, five of which have already died. The cells should enable scientists to clone pandas in the future.

The cells are cryogenically stored in liquid nitrogen, at a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius.

About 1,590 giant pandas survive in the wild, mostly in the mountains of southwestern China. Some 160 live in captivity.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2004)