Giant panda "Ying Ying" gave birth to twins Sunday morning in the Giant Panda Nature Reserve at Wolong in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Zhang Guiquan, vice director of locally-based China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, said that the mother and baby pandas are all in good condition by press time.

It is the fourth time that the 12-year-old "Ying Ying" gave birth to twins since 1998. Three days ago, another panda also gave birth to twins in the Wolong Nature Reserve.

In August, four China-based giant pandas in captivity gave birth and three of them had twins, with one in northwest China's Shannxi Province and two in Wolong.

The Wolong Nature Reserve, jointly launched by the Chinese government and the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1980, is home to 67 giant pandas. Fifty-one giant pandas were born there since 1991with 39 surviving.

Panda reproduction expert Zhang Hemin said development of panda reproduction technologies have greatly increased the possibility of giant pandas giving birth to twins and triplets.

Chinese experts not only encourage natural mating behaviors of giant pandas but also conduct artificial insemination on pandas to ensure successful reproduction of the endangered species, according to Zhang Hemin.

Since the 1990s, the possibility of pandas in captivity giving birth to twins has exceeded 50 percent and the mortality rate of panda cubs stands as high as 61 percent in China.

There is only one case of giant pandas in the wild giving birth to twins so far.

Giant pandas reproduce once a year and may give birth to one or two cubs.

The animal, well-known for its cute and graceful movements, are one of the world most endangered species. Currently, there are only 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild in China's Sichuan, Shannxi and Gansu provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2003)