Giant pandas Kai Kai, Jia Jia celebrate birthday in Singapore

Giant pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia celebrated their birthday with honey-flavored ice cakes at Singapore's River Safari on Wednesday, which marks the fourth anniversary of their arrival.

Keepers at River Safari threw a birthday bash for the giant pandas with honey-flavored ice cakes decorated with apple and carrot slices, some of their favorite treats.

Male Kai Kai celebrated his ninth birthday on Wednesday, while female Jia Jia turned eight on Sept. 3. Their ice cakes weighed a collective seven kg, and took keepers four days to make.

Both giant pandas arrived in Singapore in 2012 on a 10-year loan from China. Kai Kai and Jia Jia entered their second mating season in April earlier this year, but both natural mating and artificial insemination had been unsuccessful.

From weeks of displaying pseudo-pregnancy behavior, female panda Jia Jia is gradually returning to a quiet life of normalcy.

Keepers and vet remain optimistic for a future Singapore panda cub as Jia Jia is still very young, and will continue to employ conservation breeding techniques proven to be successful before in other zoos.

Source : XINHUA