Berlin zoo reveals names, gender of their 2 panda twin cubs

BERLIN — Berlin Zoo’s giant panda twins finally have names: Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan — desired dream and fulfilled dream.

According to Chinese tradition, the two cubs were given their names on Monday, 100 days after they were born in the German capital. Their gender was also revealed: the two are both boys.

The names were presented on wooden signs both in German and Chinese by Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller and the Chinese Ambassador Wu Ken.

Afterward, the two cubs were presented to dozens of reporters for the first time in an open glass box containing a heating pad underneath a baby blanket. One of them tried to sleep throughout the showing while the other crawled around wide-eyed turning his rear to the audience several times only to be put back in proper position with his face to the reporters by the two attending zookeepers.

Zookeepers initially hand-fed the cubs — the first giant pandas born in Germany — with bottles of milk pumped from mother Meng Meng, but they now feed on their own.

She and father Jiao Qing came to Germany from China two years ago.

The two little pandas weight six kilograms (13.2 pounds) each and will be presented to the public at the beginning of next year, once they're able to walk on their own.

There are fewer than 2,000 of the endangered pandas estimated alive in the wild today.