Video Pandamania: Twin cubs in a French zoo take their first steps in public

PARIS (AP) – First, collect stable information. Then an awkward short slide on the slippery rock at their home in Beauval Zoo near Paris. Then finally came the big show as the twin giant pandas took their first steps in public on Saturday.

Female twins born in August. Their mother, Huan Huan, and father, Yuan Zi, are at Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good relations with France. The twin pandas, named Huanlili and Yuandudu, are their second and third cubs after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.

In a video released by the zoo on Saturday, the twin tiger cubs were seen walking clumsily through the territory. At some point, the two attempted to climb nearby rocks as one looked after them and filmed them with a smartphone.

The cubs will spend a few years in France before being sent to China.

French soccer star Kylian Mbappe and Chinese Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi are godparents to the twins after athletes announced the names of the tiger cubs during a ceremony on November.

There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and about 500 in captivity worldwide.

For decades, China has gifted friendly nations with its unofficial national mascot in what is known as “panda diplomacy”. Recently, the country has lent pandas to zoos on commercial terms.