Fourteen pandas were born at the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan Province, China, on Monday, according to the New York Daily News.
The panda cubs were all put together in a crib for a cute photograph at Chengdu, a nonprofit center that is "engaged in wildlife research, captive breeding, conservation education and educational tourism," according to their website.
Researchers from the base updated the world on the panda cubs on Tuesday, when they spoke from the panda base, which has seen the birth of 20 pandas between July 10 and August 30, according to Huang Xiangming, the chief of the animal management division on the base.
Seventeen of the cubs survived, according to Huang. Two of the cubs were born at Zoo Atlanta on July 15, while another cub was born in Spain.
The 14 new pandas are the newest additions to the panda base, which has a population of 128 giant panda bears, all of whom were bred at the base. The largest of the cubs is almost nine pounds.
It's difficult for pandas to breed in their natural habitat, resulting in only about 1,600 pandas being left in the wild, according to the world Wildlife Foundation.
"Pandas are generally solitary as adults," according to the San Diego Zoo, which has its own breeding program for pandas. When females are preparing to go into heat, they leave scent marks for males, but they have to be nearby, as the females are only "receptive to breeding" for two or three days a year.
In captivity, it's much easier for zookeepers to get males and females together at the right time. In zoos, breeders often use artificial insemination. However, it can take about two or three months to know if the procedure was successful.
The giant panda is an endangered species that is native to China.
Video of the pandas.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
