Twin pandas born in Vienna zoo are male, female

The twin pandas born a month ago in Austria have been identified as male and female, a Vienna zoo announced Tuesday.

Zookeepers at Vienna’s Schönbrunn zoo had left the baby pandas’ mother, Yang Yang, to look after the newborns, limiting their view of the pair to what could be observed via the cameras placed in the enclosure.

After studying the images, it was clear that one of the pandas was male and the other one female, zoo director Dagmar Schratter said.

Tuesday’s announcement meant that Yang Yang had given birth to her first female cub, following the births of males Fu Yong (2007), Fu Hu (2010), Fu Bao (2013) and the male twin.

The new arrivals were yet to be named; Chinese tradition dictates that a period of 100 days has to pass before this can happen.

The cubs _ who were 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) in height and weighed some 100 grams (3.5 ounces) when they were born _ now measured some 35 cm (13.8 inches) from nose to tail and weighed about one kilo (2.2 pounds).

Sometime within the next three months, the pandas are to take their first steps into the areas accessible to visitors of the zoo.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Monday declared that the panda was no longer in danger of extinction.

After seeing an increase in the panda population by 17 percent in the last decade, the panda is now considered “vulnerable”.

This growth is thanks to the commitment made by Chinese authorities to reforest bamboo forests, as well as the creation of the protected reserves where almost two thirds of the wild panda population lives.