A 13-year-old panda in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan province became a mother for the fourth time on Friday.
Xiaoyatou, which means "little girl" in Chinese, gave birth to two male cubs on Friday afternoon. The cubs weighed 176.6 grams and 131.4 grams respectively at birth. Both the mother and cubs are in good conditions, according to a news release from the base.
Panda mothers usually tend to take care only one of their newborn cubs. But Xiaoyatou embraced the two cubs and licked them, it said.
Xiaoyatou has given birth three times previously. She had a female cub in 2012, twin male cubs in 2015 and a female cub in 2017.
The base has witnessed the birth of 11 cubs this year, bringing the number of its captive pandas to 206, said base chief Zhang Zhihe.
As of November last year, the country had 548 captive pandas, according to the latest release from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration.
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