Panda cubs pose for Lunar New Year photo

CHENGDU, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ten panda cubs posed for a Chinese New Year photograph on Wednesday morning at a breeding base in the city of Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The cubs, all born in the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in 2020, were held by their keepers and posed in front of cameras to send to the world their greetings for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

They average about six months old, with the youngest born roughly four months ago. One was born at a weight of just 57.1 grams -- the lightest panda born in 2020.

"Our center successfully bred 25 cubs last year, and all were born after natural mating," said Zhang Guiquan, an expert at the center.

In spite of the pandemic, experts at the center communicated with their overseas peers through "cloud communication" and four baby pandas were successfully born overseas last year.

Now over 330 giant pandas live in captivity at the center, accounting for over half of the global total.

The number of wild pandas has risen from 1,114 in the 1980s to 1,864 now, with their protected habitat reaching 2.58 million hectares, according to Zhang Hemin, executive deputy director of the center.