Meet with the Newly Born Panda Babies

Ten baby pandas born in 2020 met the public for the first time in Wolong, southwest China’s Sichuan province on Feb. 3, 2021.

Their breeders took the fluffy baby pandas to the playground at the Shenshuping panda base. Then they sat down to sent their new year's greetings to the public.

The debut ceremony was held just ahead of the Chinese New Year, the most important annual festival in the Chinese culture, which falls on February 12 in 2021.

To mark the occasion, breeders had adorned the event venue with time-honoured celebratory accessories, such as red lanterns, Chinese good luck knots, couplets and posters. 

Plenty of playthings were also laid out for the baby pandas, such as a toy train, a toy castle, and stuff toy oxen as February 12, 2021 marks the first day of the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese zodiac.

After posing for a group photo while holding the playful cubs in their arms, the breeders put the cubs down and let them frolic on the ground.

The baby pandas, aged between four and six months, were quite active at the ceremony venue, rolling around, enjoying snacks, checking out the decorative ornaments and playing with the breeders.

The eldest of the group, a pair of twin sisters born to panda Qian Qian, were more than 190 days old.

The youngest, two fraternal twins, were delivered by panda Shu Qin in late September. Shu Qin’s younger cub, the lightest captive giant panda cub born in 2020, weighed only 57.1 g at birth.

According to panda expert Zhang Guiquan, all of these cubs were conceived naturally, and were being nursed by their mothers.

The Shenshuping base is a branch of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCG), the country's biggest giant panda conservation institute, the home to 330 giant pandas.