Germany's first newborn panda cub twins are thriving
Two baby pandas born in Zoo Berlin last week are happy and healthy, and already showing signs of how they’ll look once they mature.
Furry black ears and black rings around their eyes are beginning to show, as they reach nearly two weeks of age.
The two looked somewhat like bubblegum covered in lint after their birth, but "from the gradual black and white colouring of the twins you can see they're starting to look like mama," zoo director Dr Andreas Knieriem said on Friday.
Initially, zookeepers had to help them gain weight by feeding them bottles of milk pumped by their six-year-old mother Meng Meng.
The zoo says they are feeding fine all on their own now.
The twins’ nine-year-old father Jiao Qing has not been involved in cub rearing.
They aren't yet named, and the zoo has distanced itself from a Berlin newspaper poll suggesting the names "Hong" and"Kong", due to anti-Beijing protests there.
The unnamed twins are the first pandas to ever be born in Germany.
Before the birth of their offspring, Meng Meng and Jiao Qing were the only giant pandas in Germany, and have been living in Zoo Berlin since summer 2017.