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Names chosen for Vienna zoo’s panda cubs

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pandas Fu Feng, left, and Fu Ban in the zoo in Vienna. The 3-month-old bears will get their names in an official ceremony on Nov. 23.

BERLIN >> Twin baby pandas born in August at the Vienna zoo finally have names.

The male is called Fu Ban, meaning Lucky Companion. The female was named Fu Feng, or Lucky Phoenix. About 12,000 people voted from a selection of names.

The pandas were the fourth and fifth cubs born to mother Yang Yang, after Fu Long, Fu Hu and Fu Bao.

Schoenbrunn Zoo director Dagmar Schratter said Thursday because Yang Yang’s first cub’s name, Fu Long, means Lucky Dragon, the zoo had already decided to name the new girl after the phoenix.

In Chinese mythology, the dragon represented the emperor and the phoenix the empress.

The zoo says the two are doing well, with Fu Feng now weighing 4.26 kilograms (9.39 pounds) and Fu Ban 3.97 kilograms (8.75 pounds).

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