Giant Panda
Help the zoo name the baby panda!
October 01, 2007
SAN DIEGO – Step right up and name the baby panda. The San Diego Zoo is asking visitors to suggest names for the female panda born August 3rd. Starting Sunday, Oct. 5, zoo guests have 10 days to submit names for the newborn. Suggestions should be in Chinese (using the English alphabet, not Chinese characters), have an English translation and be symbolic in meaning.
The zoo's panda team will choose several names from those suggested and the semi-finalists will be reviewed by the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association.
The approved finalists will be posted later this month on the zoo's Web site, www.sandiegozoo.org, for a final vote by the public, zoo officials said.
This is a new twist on naming pandas. In 1999, China named the zoo's first cub Hua Mei, or “China USA.” San Diego zoo officials named the second cub, born in 2003, Mei Sheng or “Born in the USA.” In 2005, five names were posted on the Internet for public voting. Su Lin, or “A little bit of something very cute,” was the winning name.
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Panda-monium week for cub's first birthday
September 03, 2007
The Atlanta Zoo has planned a series of activities, ending Saturday, to make sure this birthday doesn't pass unnoticed:
Monday, visitors to the zoo are welcome to sign a birthday banner, which will wave over the exhibit the cub shares with her parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang. It will hang all week, giving folks plenty of time to write their best wishes on it.
The zoo also will have a daily series of question-and-answer sessions in which the people who look after the zoo's pandas meet zoo-goers who may be curious about Ailuropoda melanoleuca, the giant panda. The meetings take place outside the panda exhibit at 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Mei Lan also will be given some sort of present — a toy, a treat, maybe both — every day.
On Tuesday, Paint the Panda, a series of panda-themed artwork submitted by youngsters across metro Atlanta goes on display. The exhibit, sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta and the zoo, featuring more than 75 paintings. It debuts at 6 p.m.
On Thursday, her birthday, the zoo has planned an 11 a.m. party for the cub. Humans get cake.
That evening, the zoo is hosting a sold-out reception focusing on highlights of the cub's first year. The gathering also features a special panda viewing.
On Saturday, the last day of the celebration, the zoo hosts Asian Sunset Safari, a 2 1/2-hour-long celebration of China, the pandas' homeland, and other animals of Asia. It's free for members and children under 3; $10 for nonmember adults and $5 for nonmember children.
Log on to www.zooatlanta.org for more information.
By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/03/07
Austrian Zoo finds dead panda sibling
August 24, 2007
VIENNA,
Austria - The giant panda cub born in an Austrian zoo
was actually a twin, but its sibling died, the zoo
said Friday.
Staff at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo detected the tiny carcass late Thursday while monitoring the mother, Yang Yang, and her newborn through a surveillance camera, zoologist Regina Pfistermueller said. "It took awhile until we saw it," Pfistermueller said, adding that zookeepers waited until Friday to retrieve the dead cub to avoid stressing Yang Yang.
It was unclear if the cub was stillborn or if it died shortly after birth, Pfistermueller said, adding that at 3.1 ounces it had virtually no chance of survival. The healthy cub, yet unnamed, weighed an estimated 3.5 ounces.
Zookeepers were caught off-guard Thursday when they heard unusual noises coming from an enclosed area to which Yang Yang had retreated. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that she had given birth to a cub — the first born in Europe in 25 years. Zookeepers had not been certain Yang Yang was pregnant because an Aug. 6 ultrasound had not shown any signs of it.
Thursday's surprise delivery occurred 127 days after Yang Yang mated with the male panda Long Hui. Both are in Austria on loan from China. The cubs were conceived naturally. The last time pandas were born in Europe was in Madrid in 1982, the zoo said on its Web site. A panda gave birth to twin cubs through artificial insemination.
Staff at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo detected the tiny carcass late Thursday while monitoring the mother, Yang Yang, and her newborn through a surveillance camera, zoologist Regina Pfistermueller said. "It took awhile until we saw it," Pfistermueller said, adding that zookeepers waited until Friday to retrieve the dead cub to avoid stressing Yang Yang.
It was unclear if the cub was stillborn or if it died shortly after birth, Pfistermueller said, adding that at 3.1 ounces it had virtually no chance of survival. The healthy cub, yet unnamed, weighed an estimated 3.5 ounces.
Zookeepers were caught off-guard Thursday when they heard unusual noises coming from an enclosed area to which Yang Yang had retreated. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that she had given birth to a cub — the first born in Europe in 25 years. Zookeepers had not been certain Yang Yang was pregnant because an Aug. 6 ultrasound had not shown any signs of it.
Thursday's surprise delivery occurred 127 days after Yang Yang mated with the male panda Long Hui. Both are in Austria on loan from China. The cubs were conceived naturally. The last time pandas were born in Europe was in Madrid in 1982, the zoo said on its Web site. A panda gave birth to twin cubs through artificial insemination.
Four Baby Pandas born on the same day!
August 14, 2007
BEIJING -
Four pandas were born in captivity in China on the
same day, a rare occurrence after 34 were born in all
of last year, state media reported
Tuesday.
Xinhua News Agency earlier reported that three pandas had been born, but later said that Eryatou, who had delivered a female baby on Monday evening at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan province, later gave birth to a second female baby.
Earlier on Monday, Jiaozi gave birth to a male and a female at the same center.
Chinese panda breeding centers now have reported 14 cubs born so far this year, with nine at the Chengdu center and the others at the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, Xinhua said.
The panda is one of the rarest animals, with an estimated 1,590 living in the wild. Another 210 have been bred in captivity, Xinhua said.
Of the 34 pandas born by artificial insemination in 2006, 30 survived. Both were record figures, Xinhua said.
Xinhua News Agency earlier reported that three pandas had been born, but later said that Eryatou, who had delivered a female baby on Monday evening at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan province, later gave birth to a second female baby.
Earlier on Monday, Jiaozi gave birth to a male and a female at the same center.
Chinese panda breeding centers now have reported 14 cubs born so far this year, with nine at the Chengdu center and the others at the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, Xinhua said.
The panda is one of the rarest animals, with an estimated 1,590 living in the wild. Another 210 have been bred in captivity, Xinhua said.
Of the 34 pandas born by artificial insemination in 2006, 30 survived. Both were record figures, Xinhua said.
Panda Cub Born @ San Diego Zoo!
August 08, 2007
Bai Yun gave
birth to a single cub today following a 2.5-hour
labor. Animal care staff observed the birth at 1:31
p.m. via a closed-circuit camera installed at the
Giant Panda Research Station birthing den. This is a
delicate period for the cub, but Bai Yun is an
experienced mother and the Giant Panda Team will be
monitoring the pair around the clock. The Zoo's Panda
Cam will provide a sneak peek into the den within the
next 24 hours.
Watch the Panda Cam
here.
Panda Gives Birth to Twin Cubs
July 24, 2007
A
seven-year-old giant
panda gave birth to twin cubs
on Monday afternoon in a panda research center in
southwest China's Sichuan
Province.
The cubs, one male and one female, were born between 5:50 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. Weighing 200 grams and 176 grams respectively, they are considered overweight compared with other newborns, according to Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.
Seven-year-old "Chengji" was a first-time mother and she was exhausted after 15 hours of labor that began early Monday morning, the center said. Panda keepers removed one cub and placed it in an incubator because a mother is usually only able to nurse one cub at a time. The twins will be swapped every four hours to ensure that both are well fed and taken care of.
It was the second twin birth in a month after another pair of twin cubs was born at the center on July 5. On June 30, a 21-year-old giant panda gave birth to a female cub, a rare feat given pandas normally breed between the ages of four and twenty. China made a major breakthrough in artificial panda breeding in the 1990s, with the number of newborn captive cubs rising from nine in 2000 to more than 20 last year.
The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in southwest China. Another 200 have been bred in captivity.
(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2007)
The cubs, one male and one female, were born between 5:50 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. Weighing 200 grams and 176 grams respectively, they are considered overweight compared with other newborns, according to Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.
Seven-year-old "Chengji" was a first-time mother and she was exhausted after 15 hours of labor that began early Monday morning, the center said. Panda keepers removed one cub and placed it in an incubator because a mother is usually only able to nurse one cub at a time. The twins will be swapped every four hours to ensure that both are well fed and taken care of.
It was the second twin birth in a month after another pair of twin cubs was born at the center on July 5. On June 30, a 21-year-old giant panda gave birth to a female cub, a rare feat given pandas normally breed between the ages of four and twenty. China made a major breakthrough in artificial panda breeding in the 1990s, with the number of newborn captive cubs rising from nine in 2000 to more than 20 last year.
The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in southwest China. Another 200 have been bred in captivity.
(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2007)