The panda twins at Zoo Atlanta are no longer Cub A and Cub B.
During a Wednesday morning naming ceremony broadcast by ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the male cubs were given the names Mei Lun and Mei Huan, which translates to “something indescribably beautiful and magnificent.”
The ceremony, presided over by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, came after a national contest sponsored by the television news show, in which more than 50,000 voters nationwide chose from a list of possible Chinese names.
In accordance with Chinese tradition, the panda twins, born on July 15, were not named until they were 100 days old. The offspring of mother Lun Lun and father Yang Yang, the cubs are the first surviving panda twins born in the U.S. They are siblings to three other brothers, Mei Lan, Xi Lan and Po.
Making sure both twins survived was quite an undertaking for the zoo.
When twins are born in the wild, one typically starves to death because for the first few weeks the mother will not set the other twin down, nor pause from nursing to eat or drink.
Zoo personnel with the help of Deng Tao, a giant panda expert on loan from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in the Sichuan province of China, pulled it off. Deng has helped raise at least 12 sets of panda twins in China and carefully tutored the Atlantans in the art of switching one panda for another so both would eat and grow without disturbing Lun Lun.
Hayley Murphy, director of veterinary services at the zoo, and other workers spent months trading off 12-hour shifts providing round-the-clock care to the two male cubs. Deng also camped at the panda center, keeping a close eye on the babies at night and sleeping on an inflatable air mattress in the day.
“You have to be very careful with every step you take and everything you do, especially in the first couple of days,” he said last summer.
Two of the twins’ older brothers, Xi Lan and Po, live at Zoo Atlanta. Like them, the panda twins remain the property of China and will return to the Chengdu center when they are about 3 years old. Mei Lan, the oldest of Lun Lun’s children, was born in 2006, and he was sent to China in 2010.
About 350 visitors came to Zoo Atlanta early Wednesday for the naming ceremony, including patrons who flew in from out of town, said Raymond King, zoo president and CEO. “The enthusiasm at 7 in the morning was unbelievable,” he said. “You would have thought it was spring break.”
Zoo Atlanta’s status as the first zoo in the U.S. to successfully nurture a pair of panda twins is a great event not just for the zoo and the city, but for the species and for U.S.-China relations, King said.
“It shows the unique ability of Zoo Atlanta to shine a light on the city, and bring people together from extremely diverse backgrounds.”
The cubs are still learning to walk, and are expected to go on exhibit later this fall, but they can be viewed remotely by clicking on the panda cam at the Zoo Atlanta website: www.zooatlanta.org/1212/panda_cam.
About the Author
