Twin panda cubs have made their first public appearance at a zoo in Tokyo but only briefly for now – just for three days – due to a spike in Covid-19 cases in Japan driven by the Omicron variant.
The twins, male cub Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei, which were born at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo in June, took their first steps as beaming fans held up their smartphones to film the cuddly pair as they played together.
The twins, which were palm-sized pink creatures when they were born, now weigh as much as a toddler each and have developed black-and-white fur. They enjoy climbing trees and playing together on the wood chips on the ground, according to the zoo.
In preparation for their debut, the twins and their mother were placed in a shared living quarter where they were exposed to sounds from a radio to get used to noise and voices from visitors.
Groups of six people were allowed to enter the panda quarters, where they could remain for one minute. The public viewing period is limited to two hours in the morning.
The rare animals live mainly in the bamboo-covered mountains in China’s Sichuan area.
The twin cubs’ elder sister, Xiang Xiang, born in the Ueno Zoo in 2017, is set to be sent back to China in June.
There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and some 500 others in captivity in zoos and reserves, the majority within the country.
