Un-bear-ably cute! Group of FIFTEEN giant panda cubs are shown to public for first time after being born at world-famous breeding base in China

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Huddled together in their new family, these are the fifteen adorable panda cubs which have been born this year at a world-famous breeding base in China.

Despite being one of the world's most endangered species, the black and white cubs have been successfully hand-reared at the Giant Panda Breeding base in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a centre which is aiming to reintroduce the animals back into the wild.

The 15 pandas, which includes six pairs of twins, is a record for the base. And today, the little pandas looked the picture of good health today as they rolled around and cuddled up to one another in front of besotted visitors.

Huddled together in their new family, these are the fifteen adorable panda cubs which have been born this year at a world-famous breeding base in China

The black and white cubs have been hand-reared at the Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, a centre which is ultimately aiming to reintroduce pandas back into the wild

Today, the little pandas, including six pairs of twins, looked the picture of good health today as they rolled around and cuddled up to one another in front of besotted visitors

The cubs, who were shown in public for the first time, will now be specially cared for by a team of workers who are aiming to increase the captive population of giant pandas.

The pocket-sized animals are listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's 'red list' of threatened species.

They are extremely rare as female pandas are only ready to accept a male and mate for around two to three days a year.

There are only around 1,590 pandas living in China, mostly in the Sichuan area. Last year, the number of captive bred giant pandas was 239.

Because pandas are so tiny at birth — weighing around 3oz — and have notoriously poor eyesight, they find it difficult to survive both in captivity and in the wild. 

On a number of occasions, newborns have been killed because their mothers accidentally rolled on them and crushed them.  

A 2014 census by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which has a giant panda for its logo, found there were 1,864 giant pandas living in the wild.

However, they said this 'represents a real success story, with numbers increasing from around 1,000 in the late 1970s'. In the last decade they added that panda numbers have risen by 17 per cent. 

 One of the tiniest pandas is wrapped up in a blanket as it makes its debut to the wider world at the centre

They will now be specially cared for by a team of workers who are aiming to increase the captive population of giant pandas

The species is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's 'red list' of threatened species

They are extremely rare as female pandas are only ready to accept a male and mate for around two to three days a year

Because pandas are so tiny at birth — weighing around 3oz — and have notoriously poor eyesight, they find it difficult to survive both in captivity and in the wild

The Chinese government has now set up 50 giant panda research centres. With more than 100 resident pandas, the one at Chengdu — the so- called ‘panda capital of the world’ — is among the most important