A dozen baby pandas at Chengdu Panda Base's Spring Festival "panda carnival"
From Jan. 23 to Feb. 6, the Chengdu Panda Base (also called Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center) is holding a "Panda Carnival" to celebrate Chinese New Year, and 12 six-month-old baby pandas are headlining the celebration. All of these adorable pandas were born at the Panda Base in Sichuan, China, during the summer of 2011 and are apparently healthy and growing at a rapid rate. Their exhibition at this year's Panda Carnival will be the first time they have been seen apart from their mothers.
This picture below was taken in September of 2011, showing the cubs napping together.
After only six months, the cubs have grown to weigh almost 15kg (33 lbs) - nearly 100 times their birth weight! Here is one of their most recent photos:
At this adorable stage in their lives, the cubs chase each other, put on shows for visitors, and are constantly eating. Hurry to Chengdu to see them before they age into more mature (and lethargic) patterns of panda living, they won't stay "teenagers" forever!