(7 Oct 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of Panda House in Madrid Zoo
2. Bing Xing, father of twins, in panda garden
3. Various of Bing Xing in garden
4. Close of sign, reading (Spanish/English/Mandarin) "Don't feed the animals"
5. Wide of veterinary surgeons Maria Delclaux and Yuan Bo unveil panda twins
6. Various of panda twins in incubator
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Yuan Bo, Veterinary surgeon, Madrid Zoo:
"Today is a very big day, three years ago we brought two pandas from Chengdu to here. And (INAUDIBLE) three years later today, is now that we can have babies that have one month old, so for me actually it is a very hard day, actually for everybody, it is a very big day."
8. Close of baby panda, other one snuggles up
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Delclaux, Veterinary surgeon, Madrid Zoo:
"It is an animal that is at the forefront of animal conservation. There are very few of these animals. So we have two more examples to the breeding programme which at the moment is 300 pandas. So to have two more is a significant increase."
10. Mid of pandas in incubator
11. Wide of pandas in incubator in Panda House
STORYLINE
Two newborn pandas, the latest additions to the Madrid Zoo, were presented to the public on Thursday.
The twins were born to a giant panda a month ago after being conceived through artificial insemination, and each weigh 150 grams (5 ounces).
After a month, visitors could see the baby pandas which were still in an incubator in the zoo's Panda House.
The two male pandas are the first pandas born in the Madrid Zoo since it unveiled one named Chu-Lin in 1982, the first panda born in captivity in Europe.
That one became wildly popular and a symbol of the Spanish capital.
Spain's National Research Council, which took part in the recent insemination along with scientists from China, said pandas have been born in Europe four times, twice in Madrid and two other times in the Vienna zoo.
The council said there are only an estimated 1,600 pandas left living in the wild in China, their numbers depleted by destruction of their habitat.
The Madrid Zoo has four of the endangered animals: the newborns and their parents, mother Hua Zui Ba and father Bing Xing.
That couple was a goodwill gift from the Chinese government to King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia during a visit to China in 2007.
The zoo used artificial insemination, in this case twice, because a first attempt failed, because it is extremely difficult for pandas in captivity to conceive naturally.
As per panda custom, the father remains aloof and stays away from the babies.
This is partly in response to the mother being very protective and keeping her tiny babies from being stepped on or crushed by a dad that can weigh as much as 150 kilograms (330 lbs).
Bing Xing means Star of Ice and Hua Zui Ba means Flowery Mouth.
keyword animals wacky
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
