Panda keepers hold the tiny cubs to be displayed to the public in China (AFP)
Brace yourself for cuteness overload. Thirty-six cuddly giant panda cubs born this year made their first public appearance at the Bifengxia and Shenshuping bases of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in the country's southwestern Sichuan province last week. And there's a video!
According to
China Central Television (CCTV), 42 baby pandas have already been born this year, the highest recorded amount of births since the breeding program began. Among them, there are 15 pairs of twins. The youngest of the cubs is only a month old and the eldest is about five-months-old.
The youngest of the panda cubs is only a month old and the eldest is about five-months-old (AFP)
Seventeen baby pandas were shown to the public at Bifengxia base in the city of Ya'an and 19 cubs made their appearance at Shenshuping base in the Wolong National Nature Reserve.
Giant pandas have a famously low reproductive rate, a key factor along with habitat loss in their status as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of threatened species.
Only some 1,864 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in China's Sichuan province. A further 370 live in captivity in breeding programs around the world.
Births in captivity are rare, but a cub was born at a Japanese zoo in June, while a French zoo welcomed its first-ever baby panda last month.
Watch the giant panda cubs make their public debut below:
(With inputs from AFP)Click for more
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