Photo: Courtesy of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

 Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese panda experts from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding went to France to help the giant panda Huan Huan, on loan to the Beauval Zoo, give birth to twins. The mother and her cubs are currently safe and healthy.

Huang Huan gave birth to panda cubs on Monday at the zoo, one weighing 0.149 kilogram and the other 0.128 kilogram.

During a pregnancy check on July 23, breeders at the French zoo discovered the giant panda had conceived twin cubs, so the zoo contacted the Chinese base, an employee of the base told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The base and the zoo decided to send two Chinese panda experts to France to assist French experts under the condition that the Chinese experts adhere to protection measures against coronavirus.

The two experts arrived in France on Wednesday.

Since Huan Huan went into heat in March, Chinese experts have begun to remotely instruct employees at the zoo in nursing work alongside German animal breeding experts.

Through the cooperation of experts from China, Germany and France, the giant panda was successfully impregnated on March 21.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the panda base been in close communication with zoos in multiple countries around the world through an established cloud network for giant pandas living overseas.

The Chinese experts have provided guidance in breeding and disease prevention and control through the network, not only effectively ensuring that the lives of giant pandas are not affected by the coronavirus but also to help pandas living in Japan and France give birth to cubs. The remote activity has promoted international panda cooperation. 

Huan Huan, born in 2008, arrived at the French zoo in 2012 to start her 10-year trip overseas. The giant panda gave birth to a cub named Yuan Meng in August 2017, the first panda cub born in France. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife have also visited the panda family at the zoo.