Berlin Zoo Prepares Panda Cubs for Their Big Day Out

Picture made available on Monday, Jan.27, 2020 shows Vetrinarians Andreas Ochs, left and Andrea Knieriem and zookeeper Yang Cheng checking one of the panda baby twins in the zoo in Berlin, on Jan.24, 2020. (AP Photo/Zoo Berlin)

BERLIN (AP) — Two baby pandas born at Berlin’s zoo have been chipped and checked in preparation for their first public outing in a few days, officials said Monday.

Advertisement

The zoo said the 5-month-old cubs, nicknamed Pit and Paule, were injected with a tiny microchip that’s standard for endangered species such as giant pandas.

Keepers also made sure the panda enclosure is cub-proof by lowering some of the climbing stations designed for their mother, Meng Meng, and draining the water basin, then filling it with soft wood.

The cubs were born last August, the first panda births in Germany. Their parents, Meng Meng and father Jiao Qing, were loaned to the zoo by China in June 2017.

Advertisement