Funny in a double pack: Hardly in the world, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei are the crowd pullers in the Ueno Zoological Gardens. But if you want to see the panda twins, you have to win the lottery first.
Tokyo – Long-awaited appearance in Tokyo: Two funny panda twins were presented to the public for the first time in the zoo.
Under the delighted gaze of the visitors, little Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei crawled around on a climbing tree on Wednesday and nibbled on leaves with relish. The two saw the light of day in June in the famous Ueno Zoological Gardens. The birth of twin pandas is rare. The joy of the Japanese is all the greater. At first, however, they only get to see the little ones for three days.
Because of the corona pandemic, the zoo limited the number of visitors to the enclosure and held a lottery. The first lucky winners were already there at 5 a.m. Five hours later, they were finally allowed to enter the panda enclosure. Each visitor got to see the zoo’s two stars for about a minute. “They were fluffy and cute. It was a miracle that I could see them bite leaves and climb a tree, ”the media quoted the first visitor as saying.
Access by lottery
Due to the increasing number of infections, all other facilities in the city’s oldest zoo remained closed, except for the panda enclosure. A total of 1080 randomly drawn visitors can see the twins, who now weigh around 13 to 14 kilograms, until Friday. She gave birth to 16-year-old Shin Shin in the early morning hours of June 23rd. The news had boosted the stock prices of nearby restaurants. The Japanese love pandas, so the shopkeepers are hoping for a rush.
The two twins have another sibling. Shin Shin and Ri Ri, who is the same age, are also parents of four-year-old Xiang Xiang. The giant pandas had already had offspring in July 2012, but the baby died of pneumonia after six days. Shin Shin and Ri Ri were loaned out from China in 2011. dpa
