World News | South Korea gives birth to twin giant pandas for the first time

SEOUL, July 12 (AP) – A giant panda gave birth to twin cubs at a theme park in South Korea. Everland gave birth to the two cubs, both female, last Friday at Everland near Seoul, park operator Samsung C&T Resorts said in a statement Tuesday.

The resort group said it was the first time twin pandas were born in South Korea.

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Abbott and her newborn are both healthy, the statement said.

Decades of conservation work in the wild and research in captivity have saved giant pandas from extinction, increasing their wild and captive populations from fewer than 1,000 individuals in a single period to more than 1,800 individuals. Giant pandas have a life expectancy of about 15 years in the wild, but they can live up to 38 years in captivity.

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The South Korean resort group said it would monitor the health and growth of the cubs to determine when to show them to the public. In the meantime, the group said it would use social media to showcase the cubs.

Ai Bao and her male companion, Le Bao, also a giant panda, came to the park from China in 2016 on a 15-year lease. In 2020, Aibao gave birth to a female cub named Fubao.

Aibao, Lebao and Fubao are the only pandas in Korea. Everland’s Panda World, home to three pandas, has welcomed 14 million visitors, according to the resort group. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the latest staff may not have revised or edited the body of content)