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Twin Panda Cubs at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo Getting Too Boisterous, will be Separated into Own Quarters

Courtesy of Tokyo Zoological Park Society
Twin panda cubs Lei Lei, left, and Xiao Xiao play together at Ueno Zoo in Taito Ward, Tokyo, on March 18.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:15 JST, April 9, 2024

The twin panda cubs at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo will be going their separate ways.

The male cub Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei are to be given separate quarters for living and display from next Tuesday, the Tokyo metropolitan government has announced.

According to the zoo, pandas in the wild do not form groups, separating from their parents between the ages of 1 1/2 and 2 to start solitary lives.

The twins were born in June 2021 and were separated from their mother, Shin Shin, in March last year, but have been kept together because they get along so well.

As they grew bigger, however, their play started getting too rough, to the point that there were fears of injury. As such, the zoo decided to put them in separate rooms in the Panda no Mori (Panda Forest), the breeding and exhibition facility where Shin Shin and the twins’ father, Ri Ri, also reside.