National Zoo helps a panda mom juggle care for twins

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Our next story is one that's generated a lot of excitement, not just in Washington, but all over the country.

  The National Zoo is now home to new twin panda cubs. But the first weeks are critical, we know, and sometimes risky, and zoo officials said last night was a challenging one.

  Jeffrey Brown has that story.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  It was a celebratory weekend for giant pandas and all who love them.

  At the National Zoo in Washington, Bao Bao marked her second birthday with a frozen cake of juice and fruit. And her mother, Mei Xiang, surprised zoo staff when she gave birth to not one, but two cubs.

• LAURIE THOMPSON, Smithsonian National Zoo:

  I heard her make a similar sound that she had made earlier in the day before she had given birth, sort of a grunting sound. And I looked over at the camera and out popped the cub. So, we immediately jumped into, OK, what do we do now?

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  About half of panda births result in twins. The cubs are nearly hairless, very fragile and just the size of a stick of butter.

  And two at once can present a challenge for the mother. So the zoo's panda team quickly stepped in to help.

• LAURIE THOMPSON:

  She was really struggling. She was trying, but she wasn't able to pick up both of the cubs. So, we did go in and at the right moment, we were able to go in and grab one of the cubs and take it out safely, when Mei Xiang wasn't really close to it.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  That will be the drill for a while, the panda mother caring for her newborns one at a time, while veterinarians swap them in and out of incubators to monitor each cub's health.

  And with only 1,800 pandas in the wild and 350 in captivity worldwide, each successful birth is critical to the long-term protection of the species.

  The twin births in captivity are a rare thing. This marks just the third time that giant panda twins have been born in the U.S. And the odds of both surviving have not been favorable historically.

  Dr. Pierre Comizzoli is the reproductive physiologist who has performed artificial inseminations on Mei Xiang every year since 2004. He's with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

  Welcome to you.

  And I think the first question has to be, how are they doing now?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute:

  Well, they are doing extremely well. Last time I saw them was early in the afternoon, and they were squealing and wiggling, and they were doing OK.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Why is it so hard for a panda to become pregnant, that — I was reading about an exceedingly narrow window, right?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes, yes, because the female has a really short opportunity to conceive. It's a period of time that varies between 24 and 36 hours. And that happens only once a year.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Once a year?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes, once a year.

  So you don't want to miss that window of opportunity.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  And I have seen you referred to as — I have seen it as the personal gynecologist to Mei Xiang. So, you are very aware of that narrow window.

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes.

  And the reason I was given this nickname is because we are closely monitoring the female to know exactly when the window of opportunity is going to start and then going to end. So we have different ways to monitor that, through hormones, behavior, and so we know exactly what we are doing.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  And these cubs are born through artificial insemination?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  But I read that you don't know who the daddy would be.

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Not yet. We're going to do genetic testing to figure this out.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The possibilities are — you have got — the sperm comes from?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  The sperm comes from two different males.

  And the odds are that, you know, both cubs could be from the same father, or one cub could be from one father and the other one from the other one.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Well, so you have the wonder of the two born, but then also history tells us how difficult that is for any to survive, right?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Why is it so hard for panda cubs to survive?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  This is really challenging for the mother to take care of two small cubs that need a lot of attention and that need to nurse on a regular basis.

  So we don't know in the wild exactly how the mothers are doing that, but what we know is probably that at some point they abandon one of the cubs and then they do not really rear really the two cubs. But, in captivity, we can definitely maintain the two cubs alive for — until the adult age.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  In the wild, you're saying the mother would often pick one, to make sure of the survival of one?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes. Yes, or — but this is — again, those are really assumptions. We don't really know exactly how it works in the wild.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Well, so what do you do or can you do now?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Well, now, to really maximize the chances for both cubs to nurse properly and to bond with the mother, what we do is that we remove one of the cubs.

  It stays in an incubator, at proper temperature and humidity, while the mother is taking care of one cub, nursing one cub. And then after that, we change, we swap. And it comes, you know, really easier for the mother to take care of one cub at a time.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  So, I cited the small number of pandas, giant pandas around the world. Is the situation — what is the biggest threat to them. And is the situation getting better because of the kind of work you're doing, for example?

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Of course.

  But what you have to realize is that the biggest threat, of course, is the appearance of the natural habitats, the bamboo forests in Central China. But this is getting better and better because there's a lot of measures to protect the natural habitat of those animals.

  But what we do in captivity is also extremely important, because we provide, you know, extra animals that we can reintroduce in the natural habitat.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Let me ask you, briefly, finally, have you figured out why they're so beloved, why people just love these animals? Is it merely — is it only the way they look, or what?.

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Yes, I think they have this wonderful, you know, appearance. And they look so cuddly and fuzzy.

  And I think, you know, it refers to really teddy bears. And they look like toys. And — but they are not. They are carnivores and they are wild animals, but I think they are fascinating.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  All right, well, I know everyone is wishing you good luck over there.

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Thank you so much.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Pierre Comizzoli, thank you so much.

• DR. PIERRE COMIZZOLI:

  Thank you.