Two Chinese experts left Chengdu for Japan on Tuesday to help a Chinese giant panda tend to her twins born on Monday in Japan.

Yu Jianqiu, vice director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center, said the mother panda, known as Mei Mei, gave birth to the twins Monday afternoon at the Shirahama Zoo in Wakayama of Japan.

Mei Mei, born in 1994, has given birth to five baby giant pandas since she was lent to the Japanese zoo in 2000 as part of a giant panda reproduction program.

The cute and graceful animal is one of the world's most endangered species. Currently, there are only 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild worldwide. The number of pandas in captivity totals 140.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2003)