Southwest China's Sichuan Province, home to the endangered giant pandas, has seen a baby boom for the fragile species: three cubs born in two days.

Ju Xiao, an 8-year-old panda, gave birth to twins yesterday at Ya'an reserve under the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong.

The cubs were born at 10:49 AM and 12:35 PM, respectively, said Tang Chunxiang, deputy chief of the center.

Ju Xiao, a first-time mother, nursed only the first cub and ignored the second, which was immediately sent to a panda nursery, said Tang.

The second cub, male, weighed 135 grams. The gender of the first cub was not immediately known, because the mother panda wouldn't let people near it, said Tang.

Pandas rarely give birth to twins and nearly all mothers only take the first cub as their own.

Twin cubs were born at the Beijing Zoo in early July, but the careless mother accidentally killed one after abandoning the other.

On Monday, a heroic panda mother at the Chengdu research base gave birth to her fourth surviving cub, a male weighing 175 grams, said panda expert Wu Kongju in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan. The 17-year-old panda gave birth to a male cub in 2006 and twins in 2007.

The Chengdu base has 88 pandas. The Wolong center has 155, including the abandoned cub from Beijing.

Giant pandas are among the world's most endangered species. Some 1,590 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan's mountains, and more than 210 live in captivity.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2010)