Giant female twin pandas celebrate their first birthday

Lenni and Lottie, giant panda twins, celebrated their first birthday at Zoo Berlin, Germany today | Images from Reuters

The twins celebrated with a large ‘1’ cut-out and toys and were joined by their mother Meng Meng

Last year the zoo announced that two new panda cubs were born to Meng Meng and father Jiao Qing

They were also given Chinese names: Meng Hao (beautiful dreams) and Meng Tian (sweet dreams). German media even reported about the cubs opening their eyes

Meng Meng had already given birth to another pair of twins, Pit and Paule who have now returned to China

Lennie and Lottie are only the third and fourth panda to have ever be born in Germany

China loans pandas to zoos around the world in what's called ‘panda diplomacy’

China is trying to bolster the numbers of the endangered species. About 650 giant pandas live in zoos and enclosures and only about 1,800 are found in the wild