Twin panda cubs born at Atlanta Zoo

Pandas

Panda twins born at Atlanta ZooPanda twins born at Atlanta Zoo 9/3/16 (Twitter @ZooATL photo by Liu Songrui)

Lun Lun, a panda at the Atlanta Zoo, has given birth to her second set of twins. The zoo’s Twitter and YouTube feeds show pictures and video of the cubs.

Lun Lun started contractions early Saturday morning. The first cub was born at 7:20 a.m. followed by a second at 8:07 a.m.

The zoo’s website says, “she picked the (first) cub up right away and started taking care of it.”

Because two cubs had been seen on ultrasound, the team was expecting the second birth. 47 minutes later she birthed the second cub.

Keepers had to go into “twin-swapping mode” to care for the cubs.

The zoo’s website says, “The first cub that we were able to swap out was actually her firstborn (called Cub A for now). This is because Lun Lun set Cub A down on the floor of the den when she delivered Cub B. This can be a very dangerous time for the newborn cub, because the mom is so focused on taking care of the newest arrival that she can inadvertently roll on or sit on the firstborn. We were able to get Cub A out of the den while she focused on Cub B. Cub A was rushed to our cub incubator and assessed to be very healthy, weighing in at 109.2 grams!”