Hot off the Press: Precious Panda Births
Hua Mei, the giant panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999 and returned to China in 2003, has given birth to her third set of twins in Wolong, China. This is really hot off the press as the announcement is dated Monday, 16 July 2007, 11:32 a.m.
News item here, with pictures.
From the news item, one of the cubs born earlier this morning:
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She had her first pair in 2004, and her second pair in 2005, and was then given a year off last year. Her eldest son, Hua Ling, was chosen to be part of a gift pair from China to Taiwan, but the gift is currently in limbo as the Taiwanese Government has refused the gift, calling it propaganda, especially as the pair has been renamed Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, from the phrase “tuan yuan” meaning “reunion” , which is taken as a hint that China wants Taiwan to accept that it is a part of the mother country, and not separate and independent by itself.
