By Bond Robertson 
Proud mother: Huan Huan with his new knuckles. Photo: GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP
Huan Huan’s panda gave birth to twins on Monday night, according to the Buffal Zoo. This is the second time that a panda has given birth in France.
The twins, born around 1 a.m., are the third puppies of Huan Huan and his partner Yuan Zi. When baby Yuan Meng was born in 2017, it was the first ever panda birth in France.
– The two children are pink. They are in very good condition. It looks big enough and pretty cool, said Rudolph DeLord, head of the zoo.
It is very difficult for a panda to mate, both in captivity and in the open. The female is only subject to fertilization for a day or two a year, and male pandas in captivity often have no interest in the act at all.
However, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi managed to mate Eight times in March – to the great excitement and surprise of the fancier.
Yuan Meng, the firstborn of Huan Huan, now weighs more than 100 kilograms and will be sent to China during the year, where about 1,800 pandas live freely, while another 500 are in captivity.
Huan Huan’s twins, on loan from China, will not be named for 100 days. The zoo said the task of finding names for them was entrusted to Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping.