Hong Kong’s giant panda twin cubs are more than four months old, and have started crawling around their dens, as they are set to spend their first Christmas at Ocean Park.
In a video celebrating the fourth month of their birth, Ocean Park showed both “Elder Sister” and “Younger Brother” gaining strength in their limbs and learning to crawl on all fours.
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The endearing twins also had a “showdown” in a “wrestling” match in their cot, where they pushed each other playfully as they spent more time together.
The cubs will be spending their first Christmas together at the park, which has rolled out a series of festivities centred around the six giant pandas to draw visitors. In addition to the two cubs, the park is home to their father, Le Le, mother Ying Ying and a pair of five-year-old bears gifted by Beijing, male An An and female Ke Ke.
The park is decked out with festive decorations, including a panda-themed Christmas tree and a new installation that features two inflated balloon pandas modelled after An An and Ke Ke.
A new Instagrammable panda-themed exhibition, Panda Wonders: An Illuminated Journey, allows visitors to interact virtually with the bears. Guests can snap photos with the six giant pandas in the rooms full of black and white dots, flowers on a LED wall and a room simulating a bamboo forest.
To add to the festivities, guests can also savour panda-themed Christmas snacks before enjoying a pyrotechnics and a light show in the evening featuring two giant pandas projected on the park’s Brick Hill using laser beams.
In other parts of the world that experience a much snowier winter, giant pandas often enjoy frolicking in the snow.
Giant pandas are accustomed to the cold and snow as it is part of their natural habitat.
South Korea’s giant panda twins Hui Bao and Rui Bao got their first experience with snow at Everland Theme Park and Resort as record-breaking November snowfall hit Seoul.
Despite the snowstorm paralysing traffic in the city, 17-month-old Hui Bao and Rui Bao enjoyed their first taste of winter after being kept indoors last year.
Zookeeper Kang Cheol-won said that the twins hesitated a little in front of the snow initially when they were led outdoors with their mother Ai Bao, but soon enjoyed themselves in the snow by rolling around in the field and sliding down the snowy hills.
In Sichuan province, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding also saw its first snowfall this month.
Giant pandas at the base were seen rolling around in the powdery snow and sliding down slopes, with the powdery snow dusting their coats like icing sugar.
Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate because their diet does not allow them to store enough fat to survive the winter.
Their main source of food, bamboo, is also available all year round and they migrate to elevations below 1,950 metres (6,397 feet) during winter to survive the cold.
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More from South China Morning Post:
- Panda Watch: Hong Kong’s twin cubs weigh 40 times more than at birth
- Panda Watch: how can Hong Kong cash in on panda economy as cubs reach milestone?
- Panda Watch: Hong Kong’s twin cubs ready for 100-day milestone, with festivities planned
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