Twin panda cubs at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo are being prepared for independence from their mother starting on Friday.
Male Xiao Xiao and female Lei Lei will be 21 months old on March 23. Wild pandas become independent of their mothers around the age.
Zoo officials kept the twins separated from their mother Shin Shin on Friday morning. There were no problems with the cubs, who ate bamboo shoots together and ran around their enclosure in the morning.
The officials said the twins are growing well, each weighing about 50 kilograms at a checkup on February 5. That's about 40 times their birth weight. The officials also said the cubs' permanent teeth have grown. ...continue reading
