Hong Kong welcomed the birth of its first locally born giant pandas on Thursday, with their mother becoming the world’s oldest first-time mother of its kind on record, the theme park that houses them announced.
Ying Ying (盈盈), the mother, gave birth to the twins — one male and one female — at Ocean Park just a day before she turned 19 years old, the park said in a statement.
She and her partner Le Le (樂樂) are the second pair of pandas gifted by China to Hong Kong since the former British colony returned to China’s rule in 1997.
Photo: Ocean Park via AP
Pandas are widely considered as the country’s unofficial national mascot and China’s giant panda loan program with overseas zoos has long been known as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy.
Ocean Park said in the statement that giant pandas have a “notoriously difficult time reproducing, especially as they age” and panda pregnancy is not readily detectable.
Although Ying Ying started showing symptoms including decreased appetite, increased need for rest time and changes in hormonal levels in late last month, her pregnancy was only confirmed on Sunday, the park said.
On Wednesday, her care team noticed Ying Ying’s labor symptoms and her amniotic fluid broke at night, it said, adding that after more than five hours of labor, the babies were safely delivered on Thursday morning.
“Both cubs are currently very fragile and need time to stabilize, especially the female cub who has a lower body temperature, weaker cries and lower food intake after birth,” the park said. Visitors would have to wait for a few months for their public debut.
Ocean Park Corp chairman Paulo Pong (龐建貽) thanked the local animal care team, as well as experts from China for their partnership and assistance over the years.
“The birth is a true rarity, especially considering Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda on record to have successfully given birth for the first time,” Pong said.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) also expressed his gratitude to the central government for gifting the pandas to the financial hub in 2007, saying it showed Beijing’s care and support for the city.
Last month, Lee announced that Hong Kong would receive a third pair of pandas from China.
The pair is expected to arrive this year.
Women’s accessories sold by some of the world’s most popular online shopping firms contained toxic substances sometimes hundreds of times above acceptable levels, authorities in Seoul said yesterday. Chinese giants including Shein, Temu and AliExpress have skyrocketed in popularity around the world in the past few years, offering a vast selection of trendy clothes and accessories at low prices. The explosive growth has led to increased scrutiny of their business practices and safety standards, including in the EU and South Korea, where Seoul officials have been conducting weekly inspections of items sold by online platforms. In the most recent inspection, 144 products from
The US on Monday confirmed that it would resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, as concerns over human rights in the kingdom’s Yemen war give way to US hopes for it to play a role in resolving the conflict in Gaza. More than three years after imposing limits on human rights grounds over Saudi Arabian strikes in Yemen, the US Department of State said that it would return to weapons sales “in regular order, with appropriate congressional notification and consultation.” “Saudi Arabia has remained a close strategic partner of the United States, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership,”
Russia yesterday ordered more evacuations in a region bordering Ukraine as it battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory by Kyiv’s forces. Ukraine last week sent troops into Russia’s border region of Kursk, in the largest cross-border operation by Kyiv since Moscow launched its offensive more than two years ago. The assault, which has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing, marked the most significant attack by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II. A top Ukrainian official said that the operation was aimed at stretching Moscow troops and destabilizing the nation after months of slow Russian advances
DEMOCRACY: The Brazilian president’s shifting attitude toward leftist authoritarians is because he does not want to be seen as supporting dictatorships, analysts said Brazil and Nicaragua have expelled each other’s ambassadors in a tit-for-tat diplomatic row, as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appears to recalibrate his approach to authoritarian leftist rulers who were once seen as allies. The dual expulsions this week came amid growing tensions between Lula and another supposedly progressive leader, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose claim of re-election the Brazilian president has yet to acknowledge. Lula and his counterparts in Colombia and Mexico have called on Maduro to release voting tallies from all polling stations to support his win. On Thursday, Brazil announced the expulsion of the Nicaraguan ambassador as