A giant panda gave birth to two female cubs early Monday at Beauval Zoo near Paris. The birth of the cubs comes amid growing concerns for pandas conservation status.

These newborn pandas represent the second and third pandas ever to be born in France. The French zoo proudly announced that the cubs “are very lively, pink, and plump.”

The mother panda, Huan Huan, and the father panda, Yuan Zi, were both loaned to France by China, as a symbol of being on good terms called the “panda diplomacy.”

The parent pandas mated eight times in order to get a successful pregnancy.

“Huan Huan is taking care of them very well. She took them in her mouth to lick them and clean them. We can hear little cries,” the zoo said in a statement.

Giant pandas have been one of the longest listed endangered animals, they were once endangered for 30 years but recently have been relisted to vulnerable.

The zoo will not name the cubs until 100 days pass, and the sex of the cubs cannot be completely confirmed until they are several months old. Chinse panda experts did confirm they are females.

The pandas will spend their first few years at the zoo before returning to China.

"As few as 1,864 giant pandas live in their native habitat, while another 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world," according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.