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(Image credit: AFPTV | Chimelong Group | Newslook)
The first known surviving giant panda triplets were born at the Chimelong Safari Park in China's Guangdong province on July 29, 2014. The cubs' mother was so exhausted after giving birth that panda experts let her rest and placed the triplets in an incubator.
Nap Time
(Image credit: AFPTV | Chimelong Group | Newslook)
Panda cubs are born blind and without much fur, making them entirely dependent on their mothers for support.
Waiting for Names
(Image credit: AFPTV | Chimelong Group | Newslook)
Per Chinese tradition, the Giant Panda triplets will not receive names until they are 100 days old. Panda babies have a high mortality rate, and the zoo said it won't consider them in the clear until they are six months old.
(Image credit: AFPTV | Chimelong Group | Newslook)
About 1,600 pandas live in the wild and 300 live in captivity, according to 2004 counts. The species is facing habitat loss in its mountain home in southwestern China.
Growing Up
(Image credit: AFPTV | Chimelong Group | Newslook)
The triplets in China are only two weeks old, but panda cubs usually learn to crawl by week 10 and can typically walk by the time they reach 21 weeks of age. Cubs begin eating bamboo at between seven and nine months of age.
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Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.
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