Prepare to turn into a complete mush. 18 panda cubs in China just had their own birthday party.
These panda babies from the The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda celebrated their first birthday on July 25th. The male and female cubs, including three pairs of twins, were born between June to September. The staff of the research centre threw them a joint birthday party, complete with songs and fruit cake.
Most of these panda cubs now live in the panda kindergarten at the Shenshuping Base in Wolong, Sichuan Province. Besides the birthday cake, the pandas got to play with toys, and were also spotted climbing trees and playing with a car made from bamboos. Fans of the cubs were also present to take part in the fanfare. Xinhua Net shared a video from the celebrations.
Tang Tingzhao, a panda enthusiast who was present at the party, told the South China Morning Post,
This is the first time I’ve seen so many pandas in one place together. It’s also my first time to see so many baby pandas. I’m very excited and very happy.
The cubs main diet mostly consists of milk, along with two meals of tender bamboo shoot tips each day, that allows them to grind their new adult teeth. The cubs also undergo regular physical examination, and are monitored by their breeders at the research centre for indication of growth.
The population of giant pandas at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda has now reached 285, which makes them more than half of the total 548 giant pandas living in captivity around the world.