Boy oh boy! Twin male pandas charm Berlin zoo

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Berlin's Mayor Michael Mueller with "Meng Yuan"

The cuteness level at Berlin Zoo doubled on Monday when a pair of twin panda cubs made their public debut, with the zoo revealing the cuddly bundles of fur were both boys.

The little ones were born at the zoo on August 31 but in keeping with Chinese tradition they were only named after 100 days.

Speaking before a crowd of excited reporters at the Panda Garden, zoo director Andreas Knieriem announced that the cubs would go by the names of Meng Xiang, meaning "long-awaited dream" and Meng Yuan, or "dream come true".

The twins, weighing around six kilos (13 pounds) each, then made their long-awaited first appearance before the world's media.

Wheeled out in a glass-cased "panda bed", they were seen lounging close together on a heated mattress.

One of the cubs appeared half-asleep and unfazed by the attention, while his more active brother repeatedly turned his back on the press pack, prompting coos and laughter.

But the general public will have to wait a little longer for their own glimpse of the zoo's newest stars.

The cubs will be kept away from visitors "until they can walk properly" and are more familiar with their surroundings, Knieriem said, expected to be sometime in early 2020.

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Knut polar bear death riddle solved

By Jonathan Amos

BBC Science Correspondent

Scientists say they can now explain what happened to Knut, the famous polar bear that drowned at Berlin Zoo in 2011.

A new investigation has shown that he had a type of autoimmune inflammation of the brain that is also recognised in humans.

Researchers hope this knowledge can help both human and animal sufferers.

Knut became an international celebrity, after being abandoned by his mother and then hand-raised by a zookeeper.

For a while, he was the most recognisable bear on the planet, with his face featuring regularly on TV and in newspapers, and even on the front cover of an edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

His death was as public as his life. Knut experienced a seizure and collapsed into his enclosure's moat - right in front of the many zoo visitors who had come to see him - and never regained consciousness.

The necropsy established he had encephalitis, a brain inflammation, but the investigating scientists could find no reason for it.

They suspected some kind of infection, however all pathogen screening drew a blank.

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Woman sneaks into Berlin Zoo seal pool for swim

August 5, 2014 10:13 AM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A woman sneaked into the seal pool of Berlin Zoo on Monday night, risking serious injury to take a swim with the animals after closing time, zoo authorities said.

A witness told German daily Bild: "I watched as the woman stripped to her bikini and then lowered herself into the seal pool. Further back was a man taking photos."

Zoo staff failed to catch the woman, said Ragnar Kuehne, a zoo manager, but would have called the police if they had.

"The woman could have been seriously injured if the seals had bitten her," he said.

The woman took her swim at 8:30 p.m. EDT (1930 CET), half an hour after visitors had been ushered out.

"People need to respect animal welfare in both the wild but also in captivity," said Doerte von der Reith, spokesperson for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "To intrude into their compound is absolutely irresponsible."

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