Germany's newest panda twin s are thriving at the Berlin Zoo. The cubs spent their first five days of life taking turns cuddling and drinking milk from their mother every hour.
Born Thursday to mother Meng Meng, 11, the zoo said Tuesday that it's cautiously optimistic during this critical period - panda cub mortality is at its highest within the first two weeks of birth and through the first month because they don't yet have a functioning immune system.
Without human help, one of the cubs likely would not have survived because giant pandas usually only raise one cub when they give birth to twins. So the zoo has stepped in with a team that includes experts from China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, who are on a visit to Berlin.
When one of the twins is with their mother, the other is spending time in an incubator donated by a Berlin hospital.
"Without protective measures, the giant panda would most likely already be extinct," zoo director Andreas Knieriem said in Tuesday's news release, adding "every cub that grows up healthy counts."
