TOKYO, Oct 9 (NNN-NHK) – Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, said yesterday that, the twin giant pandas born at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens in June, have been named Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei.
When put together, their names have the meaning of “leading to the future from a bright dawn,” Koike told a news conference.
The twin pandas are expected to make public debut in Jan next year.
Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, male and female respectively, were born on June 23. Their births marked the first time for Japan’s oldest zoo, to witness the birth of twin pandas.
The two cubs’ mother, Shin Shin, and father, Ri Ri, are on loan from China. The pair were also parents to four-year-old female panda Xiang Xiang.
The Ueno Zoological Gardens received its first pandas in 1972, from China, in commemoration of the normalisation of bilateral ties.– NNN-NHK
