Photo by mflinner

Late last week Billie Jean, the National Zoo’s Andean Bear, gave birth to twins.

Some five days later, residents and visitors still bummed over the death of a panda cub in September have yet to be introduced to the new duo, though watchers of the Andean Bear Cam have caught fleeting glimpses of them as Billie Jean has wandered out of her den.

Yesterday the zoo provided an update on Billie Jean and the cubs:

Billie Jean is being an excellent mom as she was last time. She’s beginning to leave the den for short periods. She was out of the den, briefly, a few hours ago. We’ve been leaving her measured amounts of food and monitoring how much she eats. So far, she’s only eating a little bit which is normal. The cubs are still vocalizing, and they are beginning to make the trilling vocalization typical of Andean bear cubs. We’re still leaving her alone and staying away from the den. We want everything to be as close as possible to the way it would be in the wild.