The Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium announced that a giant panda gave birth to “extremely rare” twin cubs on Friday.

The zoo welcomed two rare cubs, a male, and a female, on August 9, 2019.

But the zoo said that the upcoming days for the twin cubs are going to be crucial.

The Pairi Daiza Zoo is currently monitoring the twin cubs and Hao Hao, the mother of the cubs, by medical experts.

Eric Domb, the president and the founder of the Pairi Daiza Zoo, said, “The double birth is wonderful news for this extraordinary species that is still threatened today.”

He added, “We’re very proud.”

The twin cubs were born on August 8, 2019, and their birth news was announced a day later.

The male cub weighed 160 grams when it was born and the female cub, who arrived two hours after the male, weighed 150 grams.

The zoo will place one cub in an incubator at a time and hand-feed it with a bottle.

Hao Hao, who is currently on a 15-year-old loan from China, was inseminated in April this year.

The twin cubs are second and third cubs Hao Hao has given birth to at the zoo in Belgium.

There are less than 2,000 pandas left in the wild, says World Wildlife Fund, and countries such as Belgium and China are currently trying to increase the numbers by protecting the animals.

3 years ago, the International Union for Conservation of Nature changed the status of giant pandas in the wild was changed from endangered to vulnerable.