Panda triplets 95 pct likely to survive: expert

China's top panda expert said that panda triplets born in south China in July have an unprecedented 95-percent likelihood of survival, as they are healthy more than 50 days after birth.

Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas, told Xinhua that the triplets have passed the newborn "danger zone."

The pandas were born in the wee hours on July 29 at the Changlong Zoo in the south China city of Guangzhou. They are the first ever set of panda triplets to survive this long.

"Panda twins are rather likely to survive. If we combine artificial insemination with natural mating, the average survival rate for twins can reach 50 percent," Zhang said. "But for triplets, the average was only 1 percent previously."

Zhang said there have been four previous instances of panda triplet births, but in each case, at least one of the triplets died because of physical defects or being underweight.

Now the triplets have reached the same weight as other pandas of the same age.

Their mother, Juxiao, gave birth to the triplets in Guangzhou after being artificially inseminated twice.

Born in 2002 at the Wolong Giant Panda Base in southwest China's Sichuan province, Juxiao gave birth to twins in 2010 before being sent to the zoo in Guangzhou.

Panda breeding is difficult as the animals are reluctant to mate and have low fertility rates. Zhang's team has made great headway in panda breeding, with 208 surviving pandas born at the center so far.

"We try our best to let genetically diversified pandas mate naturally. But in some cases, they don't want to mate. We then turn to artificial insemination."

"That's a double fail-safe to ensure breeding," Zhang said.