How Old Is Lei Lei? Fact-Checking Tokyo's Twin Panda Age, Lineage, and China Return
Lei Lei entered the world at 1:24 a.m. on June 23, 2021, arriving roughly an hour and a half after her twin brother, Xiao Xiao. At birth, she was a fragile, pink infant weighing just 124 grams. Her arrival marked a historic breeding success for Ueno Zoo: the first pair of surviving giant panda twins delivered at the municipal facility since its founding in 1882.
Naming the twins turned into a nationwide cultural event. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government received more than 190,000 public submissions before selecting "Lei Lei", written with the kanji character 蕾, signifying a flower bud bursting into life, to evoke hope and future blooming. Her brother was christened "Xiao Xiao" (暁暁) to represent the dawn. While Xiao Xiao quickly developed a boisterous personality marked by a painted green stripe on his back so keepers could tell them apart, Lei Lei became known for an unhurried, independent temperament, spending long afternoons sleeping high in the branches of her outdoor enclosure.
Her fourth year has marked a period of rapid physical maturation. She transitioned entirely away from maternal milk to a staple adult diet consisting of fresh bamboo stalks, nutritious bamboo shoots, steamed cornmeal dango, and apples. Weekly veterinary records confirm that she has filled out from a palm-sized newborn into a healthy adult weighing roughly 94 kilograms.
