Patter of tiny panda paws heard in France

A giant panda on loan to France from China gave birth to female twins early yesterday, with a zoo declaring: "They are very lively, pink and plump."

The Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, said the twins weighed in at 149 and 129 grams.

Mother Huan Huan and father Yuan Zi are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China. The twins are their second and third cubs after the first panda born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.

"Huan Huan is taking care of them very well," the zoo said of the twins. "She took them in her mouth to lick them and clean them. We can hear little cries."

The sex of the cubs was determined by Chinese experts in France, but that will need to be confirmed since external genitalia does not appear until cubs are several months old.

The birth comes after the zoo announced in March that Huan Huan and Yuan Zi had "mated eight times." Veterinarians then carried out artificial insemination "to have as much chance as possible" for a pregnancy.

The cubs will not be named before 100 days. They will spend a few years in France before being sent to China.

There are about 1,800 pandas in the wild and about 500 in captivity.

China for decades gifted nations with its unofficial national mascot in what was known as "panda diplomacy." More recently it has loaned pandas on commercial terms.