It is not only in Tokyo that we are experiencing emotional moments this Sunday. At zooParc de Beauval (Loir-et-Cher), we are also preparing to experience a great moment with the birth – rare – of two baby pandas. Those of the female Huan Huan on loan from China and who had already given birth to Yuan Meng, the first baby panda to be born in France, in August 2017.
“Everything is calm, Huan Huan sleeps most of the time
The Beauval ZooParc expected a probable birth of the baby pandas on Saturday evening. But this Sunday afternoon, still nothing. “Everything is calm, Huan Huan sleeps most of the time and eats little,” 20 minutes, the zoological park. At the end of March, the two giant pandas, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, one of Beauval Zoo’s main attractions, had tried to mate, under the watchful eye of veterinarians and caretakers. Artificial insemination was also carried out as a precaution, the female panda being fertile only 24 to 48 hours per year.
The technique hit the mark, the Beauval ZooPark announcing, on July 21, that Huan Huan was once again pregnant, after observing a baby panda embryo, measuring 1.74 cm. Then, a dramatic turn of events a few days later, with the observation, during a second ultrasound, of a second. “The measurements have not yet been made on the second because Huan Huan moved” during the examination, specified the veterinarian.
A path strewn with pitfalls?
From mating to giving birth, the arrival of a newborn is a long obstacle course for pandas, which remains strewn with pitfalls until birth and even until the first days of newborns. . As a reminder, Yuan Meng must also initially have a little brother or sister, who finally died shortly after birth.
Such a birth remains a small diplomatic event closely watched by Beijing, which lends its pandas sparingly. Two caregivers, from the Chengdu base in China, arrived at the ZooParc where they will help the French veterinary teams, at the birth of the twins but also during their first months. At the end of 2017, Yuan Meng had also been baptized with great pomp by a prestigious godmother: prestigious godmother, Brigitte Macron herself.