Panda twins on view to public for first time

Huanlili and Yuandudu, the panda twins from the French zoo in Beauval (central France) were presented to the public for the first time on Saturday, four months after their birth.

“We are fans. It was unthinkable not to come. We have reserved a room for a long time to be the first ”, explained to AFP Veronique, disguised from top to bottom as a panda and who came from Bordeaux (400 kilometers to the southwest) to experience this moment.

Behind large windows, visitors could observe the first steps of the pandas.

For Baptiste Mulot, Veterinary Manager at ZooParc de Beauval, “it is an important day for visitors”.

“The females are capable of moving on their own. They explore, they discover their habitat ”, explains Mulot.

“The twins are very well. They weigh about 7.4 kg. They continue to be breastfed by their mother (Huan Huan, a female on loan from China several times a day, and also from the bottle “, the vet details.

Born on December 2 at the zoo, the two pandas are sponsored by the French footballer of Paris SG, Kylian Mbappé, and by the Chinese Olympic athlete Zhang Jiaqui, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Games in jumping.

Although traditionally the names of panda babies are chosen by the first Chinese lady, Peng Liyuan, this time it was the French public who decided them in an online vote in which 122,000 people participated.