BEIJING (AP) — Twin giant pandas were born at a breeding center in southwest China, a sign of progress in the country’s unofficial national mascot’s struggle to survive in the face of climate change and habitat loss.
The male and female cubs were born on August 24 at the Qinling Panda Research Center in Shaanxi Province, the second pair of twins given to their mother Qin Qin. Earlier this month, another panda, Yongyong, gave birth to twins at the center.
Qin Qin, who was also born at the center, had previously given birth to twin women in 2020.
State media did not reveal the father, but for years Chinese veterinarians have used artificial insemination to increase the population of the animal, which rarely breeds in the wild and feeds on bamboo in the mountains of western China.
Those efforts paid off, with some captive pandas being released into the wild. The number of wild giant pandas has gradually increased, reaching an estimated 1,800. About 500 people are kept in zoos and reserves, most of them in the mountainous, densely forested province of Sichuan.
The encroachment of panda land by farmers and industry has reduced pandas’ living space while cutting them off from other breeding populations.
Like much of central and western China, soaring temperatures and drought in Sichuan this summer have sparked forest fires and the withering of crops and forests, often attributed to global climate change.
