Fiona Govan
IN JUST two months they have transformed from blind hairless pink-skinned creatures to bouncing fluffy bundles of black and white cuteness. And now they need names.
Madrid Zoo have opened a competition to name their latest arrivals, twin Giant Pandas who were born on September 6 and are now two months old.
The competition is open to everyone the world over and invites people to vote for their favourite names along with a pithy response as to why that choice was made.
However, the shortlist has already been chosen and is compiled of six names that recognise the Chinese heritage of the animals and the significance of their birth.
This step avoids the potential embarrassment of a Boaty McBoatface type scandal – when a public consultation in Britain on what to call a research ship resulted in the rather amusing but totally absurd name coming out top choice.
Instead, the pandas will be named from one of six names on the shortlist which comprises of You You, Jiu Jiu, Xing Mu, Bing Tang, Hua He and Yue Yuan.
The pandas were born to Huz Zui Bai and Bing Zing, the father who last year topped the charts in the ‘Giant Panda Global Awards’ for being the ‘most favourite panda’ outside of China.
The international captive breeding programme for the Giant Panda has seen it now declassified from an endangered species to the ‘vulnerable’ category.
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Pink-skinned baby panda twins are born at Madrid Zoo in Spain
