Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou unveiled three new additions in the form of panda triplets.

The bouncing bundle of bears were born July 29th, and are the first known instance of a set of triplets being brought to term. After reports their mother, Ju Xiao, was at first  too exhausted to care for them, zoo handlers told media outlets she is now actively nursing her cubs with assistance from feeders.

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With typical caution, Chimelong officials list the cubs, though healthy, as "surviving." Mortality rates of panda newborns are dishearteningly high, the survival rate at Chinese breeding center stand between 35 and 48 percent. Notoriously fragile at birth, panda newborns are 900 times smaller than their mother and are victim to an assortment of postnatal complications. The high profile death of an eight-day-old panda cub in 2012 at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, demonstrated that, as handlers there said, "Nature is in charge." The cause of death was determined to be a build-up of fluid in the abdomen and liver abnormalities.

The genders and names of the Chimelong trio have yet to be announced. Following Chinese custom, panda cubs are not given official names until they pass the 100-day mark.

The cubs were born over the course of four hours and currently weigh between 230 grams (8 ounces) and 333 grams (12 ounces). Ju Xiao was artificially inseminated in March using sperm from a sire living at another Guangzhou facility. Photos show the tiny threesome, pink and dusted with a fine white fur, napping in their incubator. Due to the low panda fertility rate, breeders often resort to artificial means to propagate the species.

The World Wildlife Federation estimates around 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, with 300 at various zoos and breeding centers. The species' decline and general "cuteness" make pandas the cause célèbre among environmentalists and the poster child for habitat loss. 

TagsPanda, Panda cubs, Guangzhou