Twin panda cubs made their first public appearance before devoted fans in Tokyo, but they will be on display only briefly for now due to a spike in COVID-19 cases driven by the omicron variant.
In this photo provided by Tokyo Zoological Park Society, Japanese-born twin pandas Xiao Xiao, top, and Lei Lei, bottom, are seen together at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. Twin panda cubs made their first public appearance Wednesday before their devoted fans but only briefly - just for three days for now - due to the upsurge of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant.
In a video released by the zoo Wednesday, the twin cubs sit back to back on a tree playing with bamboo while visitors can be heard saying “kawaii !" in the background. Then the male cub steps on its sister to move up the tree. The twins, which were palm-sized pink creatures when they were born, now weigh as much as a toddler each and have developed black-and-white fur. They enjoy climbing trees and playing together on the wood chips on the ground, according to the zoo.
Zoo staff Naoya Ohashi lamented the scaled-down debut and said he hopes many more people can see the panda cubs after coronavirus infections slow.
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