Twin Giant Pandas Names Revealed [Video]
The wait is over! Drum roll please! The twin giant panda babies born in an Atlanta zoo this summer have finally been named! Meet Mei Lun and Mei Huan!
According to Good Morning America, the twin pandas celebrated their 100-day-old birthday Wednesday by receiving their official names. Yup! That means the cute little balls of fur no longer have to go by “Cub A” and “Cub B”.
CBS Atlanta reported that these little cubs are the first giant pandas born in the US since 1987. 15-year-old giant panda Lun Lun gave birth to the twin pandas on July 15, and they have been the center of attention ever since.
The Huffington Post continued on to say that Lun Lun had been artificially inseminated in March. Mei Lun and Mei Huan are now the fourth and fifth little panda cubs to be born at Zoo Atlanta to Lun Lun and her partner Yang Yang.
Mei Lun and Mei Huan attracted quite the crowd this morning as Good Morning America prepared to reveal the names picked for the two bundles of fur. CBS Atlanta stated that zoo staff, local schoolchildren, panda fans from across the US and even Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed crowded the Zoo’s Conservation Room as the event got rolling.
Huffington Post stated that the panda twins names come from a Chinese idiom that means “something indescribably beautiful and magnificent.”
Raymond B. King, president and CEO, said the following in a statement on the zoo’s website regarding the loaning process between US zoo’s and China in the name of science:
“We in Atlanta and Georgia are fortunate stewards of these amazing animals, which are entrusted to our care on loan from China, but there are people around the world who feel a personal stake in their lives. Giant pandas have a unique capacity to carry a conservation message, and engaging and uniting their many fans is one way we have of letting that message resonate even more powerfully.”
During the naming celebration, Good Morning America was given a giant stuffed panda bear with a giant envelope to match. In that envelope where the names chosen for the panda boys, and after a moment of excitement, the names were read off and the crowd in the Zoo’s Conservation Room went wild.
The names Mei Lun and Mei Huan seem to be very fitting for these little twin giant pandas, and it would seem the public is very excited to see what their futures hold.
[Image by Hung Chung Chih / Shutterstock.com]
