Xing Ya

Basic Profile

Xing Ya (Chinese: 星雅), studbook number 681, is a female giant panda born on August 13, 2007 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. She weighs approximately 91 kg.

Her mother is Er Ya Tou (二丫头, studbook 401) and her father is Bing Xing (冰星, studbook 475 — a different Bing Xing from the Madrid male). Her twin sister is Xing Rong (星蓉, studbook 680). Together, they were the first artificially-bred twin pandas born at the Chengdu Research Base.

Offspring

Xing Ya has given birth to five surviving cubs across three litters:

Birth	Cubs	Notes
2013-08-27	Ya Yi (雅一, male), Ya Er (雅二, female)	First birth
2016-06-23	Xing Guang (星光, male), Xing Chen (星辰, female)	First wild-training twins
2019-08-09	Xing Qing (星晴, female)

Life Journey

Wild Training (2012)

On January 11, 2012, Xing Ya was one of the first six pandas selected to participate in the Panda Valley (熊猫谷) wild reintroduction program in Dujiangyan. The program was designed to prepare captive-born pandas for potential future release by exposing them to larger, more naturalistic enclosures.

The World’s First Wild-Training Twins (2016)

On June 23, 2016, Xing Ya gave birth to twins Xing Guang (星光) and Xing Chen (星辰) — the first giant panda twins in the world born and raised as part of a formal wild training program. The cubs were raised in a semi-wild enclosure with minimal human contact, learning foraging and survival skills from their mother. The birth was hailed as a breakthrough in the center’s rewilding efforts.