These are the steps being taken to ensure the National Zoo's new panda twins survive

One of the newborn panda twins at the National Zoo.

(Image credit: Handout/Getty Images)

published 24 August 2015

At the Smithsonian's National Zoo, staff members are still celebrating the birth of panda twins over the weekend, and have a plan to ensure the delicate cubs survive.

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"A lot of things have to happen," chief veterinarian Don Neiffer told The Guardian. "Until the cubs are both out walking around, acting normal, being a panda, that's probably when we'll exhale." Mei Xiang gave birth to healthy twins Saturday weighing 4 ounces and 3 ounces, respectively, but pandas that give birth to twins often only care for one and let the other die. In China, breeders have developed a system where cubs are swapped out every few hours, so each one has the opportunity to nurse and bond with the mother, while the other panda is in an incubator. Now, panda twins have a survival rate of more than 80 percent — much higher than the 20 percent chance two decades ago.

Officials say they will use the swapping method as long as Mei Xiang lets them, and the first swap on Sunday morning was a success. One of the cubs let out a squeal when it was taken away — a sign of good health — and both are pink with just a tiny amount of white hair. There are no plans to bottle feed the cubs, unless they become underweight or their health declines. The zoo won't know if the cubs are male or female for three to four more weeks, and per Chinese tradition, they won't be named until they are 100 days old. Because pandas are endangered, the team is especially hopeful that the cubs will continue to thrive. "We've all been involved in events that don't go so well, so we are ecstatic that things are going great," Neiffer said. The zoo is already home to Mei Xiang's other two living cubs — Tai Shan and Bao Bao, who turned two on Sunday and celebrated with a bamboo, apple, and honey cake.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.