Giant Panda Cubs Snuggle Up At The World's Cutest Nursery
Sept. 28 2011, Published 5:30 a.m. ET
Watch out, we could be heading for an absolute cuteness overload!
In what must be the snuggliest day-care in the world, a giant panda nursery has released new footage of its furry residents, with photos of the adorable black-and-white sleeping beauties all lined up in a row and nestled on a fluffy pink blanket.
While they look like they don't have a care in the world as they nap in their big wooden crib, the Giant Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu, in south-west China's Sichuan province, was opened in 1987 to protect the rare breed from extinction.
Watch an amazingly cute video of the pandas on The Sydney Morning Herald
Staff at the center, which started with just six pandas and now has over 100, along with other endangered breeds, were like proud parents as they nursed the new batch of babies.
A once-a-decade census of the giant panda population in China was launched earlier this year to determine how many of the breed still live in the wild.
It is the fourth of its kind since the program was launched in the 1970s, during the last count there were 1,596 wild pandas in China, with 1,206 of them living in Sichuan.
Wild pandas are threatened by a loss of habitat, poaching and because they are notoriously poor breeders. Females in the wild normally only have a cub once every two or three years.
Fertility rates among the 300 captive giant pandas in China are even lower.
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