Two newborn pandas at the Hangzhou Zoo have a special "nanny" - a young woman who recently gave birth to her own child and shared her milk with the panda cubs.
The cubs were completely neglected by their young mother, who refused to nurse them or dry their furs after delivery last week.
The zookeepers had to take them away from their mother, dry them and feed them with glucose and milk, reported Xinhua News Agency.
However, it would be hard for the cubs to survive unless they were fed colostrum - which comes from mother's milk and is rich in antibodies and minerals.
Since the panda's own mother refused to nurse them, the zookeepers asked the local press for help.
Xie Fang, a journalist with Hangzhou Daily, recalled that they had only less than two hours to meet the deadline for feeding the pandas.
"I dashed out of my office and ran all the way to the obstetric section of the nearest hospital," Xie wrote in a story carried in Tuesday's Hangzhou Daily.
"There were not many deliveries at the hospital those days, and only one of the young mothers was up to the requirements. But she had breast-fed her baby just before we arrived," Xie wrote.
"We were at our wits' end. Fortunately, the head nurse helped milk the mother through massage, and we got enough colostrum within only about 10 minutes.
"Back at the zoo, we saw the two panda cubs go quietly to sleep as they drank happily through a straw," Xie wrote.
The special "nanny" said she would call on her two "babies" at the zoo with her own child some day, the report said.
Pandas, one of the rarest species of animals, are on the verge of extinction.
(eastday.com.cn 07/05/2001)
