Pandas - California / San Diego Zoo

[carly]

Just watched baby Yun Zi being nursed by Mama!   Very sweet.  

Yunior is adorable, I watch him daily    Lun Lun at Atlanta Zoo is on birth watch as of Monday.  They will be monitoring her 24/7 to see if she has a cub or it was a pseudo pregnancy, let's hope it's a cubbie  

[Kinderchick]

Just watched baby Yun Zi being nursed by Mama!   Very sweet.  

[Kinderchick]

Thanks for reminding me of this website again, Elaine, especially since my new bunch of Kinderchicklets will likely be very keen to see this little guy!

[Elaine L]

The latest report on young Yun Zi, the panda cub at the San Diego Zoo, tells us that he is just a fun-loving, curious-about-everything youngster who thinks his keepers are there for him to chase around and play with.  He loves to pounce on them and I guess he is teething, so he thinks of them as sort of chew toys, and as he is quite big now, this is a bit of a drag for his keepers.  They are getting him started on a training program, when they can get his attention long enough to cooperate.

Here is the web site:

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/index.html

[carly]

Lots of panda news these days: Tai Shan and Mei Lan are leaving for China on February 4th so two big goodbye parties happening at their respective zoo's today!  The will be flying Fed-Ex together on Thursday morning.  Details here:

http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-events/zoo-releases-details-of-285790.html?cxntlid=daylf_artr

Some great new photos of Yun Zi and family up flickr if you want to check it out!  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjdrill/

[carly]

One of the SDZ photographers - Rita has some great photos of Yun's last 2 days on exhibit if you want to check it out!  And another San Diego Fan as well.  He is the cutest little cubbie  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritapetita/page1/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/

[Elaine L]

I hope the time will soon come where China will have enough diversity in its panda population that they will no longer be taking back the cubs born in the USA, and that they will be able to allow the pandas to once again live in the wild.  To cheer us up about the departures of the pandas, though, go see the video of panda cub Yun Zi's public debut yesterday at the San Diego Zoo.  He is one funny little guy!

[carly]

Tai Shan leaving is very sad.  Mei Lan from Atlanta and Su Lin from San Diego will also be leaving us shortly as well to go home to China.  

[Loriann]

WASHINGTON - The Friends of the National Zoo will host a "Farewell to Tai Shan" party at the end of the month before the 4-year-old giant panda is sent to China.
The group announced Thursday that it will hold the goodbye party in Washington on Jan. 30. Zoo officials said in December that Tai Shan will be leaving under an agreement with the Chinese government.

The agreement that brought Tai Shan's mother, Mei Xiang, and father, Tian Tian, to the zoo calls for any panda offspring to be returned to China for breeding.
A zoo spokeswoman says the event will be the main public farewell for Tai Shan. Panda fans will be able to write goodbye cards. It is not clear, though, what day Tai Shan will depart.

[Elaine L]

Our panda cub is due to make his public debut on Thursday.  Of course, being the headstrong little fellow that he is, he may make a grand entrance, or he may ignore all his admirers by sleeping through the whole thing:

Yun Zi’s public debut is set for Thursday, January 7. The five-month-old panda cub’s special outdoor exhibit will be open for Zoo guests from 9 a.m. to noon, although there is no guarantee that Yun Zi will be in the yard at that time! Guest access to the special yard will be for just a few hours each morning during the next few weeks. You can continue to see Yun Zi’s siblings, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen, in their enclosures.