Giant Panda Gives Birth To Twin Cubs At Tokyo Zoo

A giant Panda at Tokyo’s Ueno zoo gave birth to twins in the early hours of Wednesday, the zoo said in a statement, adding that it had not yet confirmed the sex of the pair.

Zoo director Yutaka Fukuda said the twin birth was a first for the Ueno facility.

One of the babies, weighing in at 124 grams, was placed in an incubator, while Shin Shin, the mother panda is in good health, and carefully looking after the other baby, he added. The cubs were born an hour and a half apart and were barely the length of an adult human palm.

Since the mother panda and partner Ri Ri mated in early March, zookeepers have been on alert for a possible pregnancy.

With just a month to the Tokyo Olympics, japan has another reason to celebrate. Shin Shin sparked a rally in stocks for the eateries near the zoo earlier this month when her suspected pregnancy was announced, with investors anticipating a visitor boom to the area after the delivery.

Shares in one of the Chinese restaurant nearby spiked nearly 30 per cent on the pregnancy and was up around 6.4 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.