Pandas Live on

Newborn cub at Zoo Atlanta!

Congratulations to Lun Lun of Zoo Atlanta who had her cub tonight, August 30, 2008 at 10:10 pm EST!  Here is the video of it.  Kudos to the staff at the Zoo also!

NOW WITH SOUND!

Panda Cub birthwatch begins!

Along with quite a few others on flickr, we are watching Zoo Atlanta live webcam  right now to see if Lun will give birth to a cubby tonight.  She went into labor at 1:30 pm (EST) today, when her water broke.  The zoo says it could be up to 48 hours before birth!  eeek!   Let's hope not!

The zoo staff is right there with her, you can see where they are shining a light on her in the first pic.

Panda births can't be taken for granted

Panda births are truly a wonder of nature.  Just as we celebrate the news of Lun Lun at Zoo Atlanta getting ready to give birth, we see that the panda born in Japan has just passed away.  Only days old, it just wasn't meant to be.  There is so much to learn still and the work of keeping Giant Pandas from becoming extinct is still as critical as ever.

Giant Panda, Dan Dan had a cub on August 27, 2008, the first in 20 years for Japan, by artificial insemination.  "I feel relieved the baby was born safely," said the head of Oji Zoo, Osamu Ishikawa.   But it was not to be as the zoo reported Friday afternoon.    "Zoo officials and veterinarians were monitoring it 24 hours a day, but it ended with a sad result," the zoo said on its website"

My condolences to the Oji Zoo, I know this must be difficult for them.  Photos of Dan Dan and the male, Zing Zing below.

   

Cubbie on the way at Zoo Atlanta!

A special edition from Zoo Atlanta, on their cub update page.

Thursday, August 28-SPECIAL EDITION!
Today is one of the most exciting days of my career. I went to the giant panda building this afternoon to try to do an ultrasound session with Lun Lun. I didn’t expect her to cooperate, because she has not cooperated for the last three weeks. But we were lucky. She cooperated and we saw a fetus with a strong heartbeat! The fetus appeared to be well developed. So, we expect a birth at anytime!
Dr. Sam Rivera
Interim Director of Veterinary Services

You can keep up with the birthwatch here on their live webcam site.

Happy Birthday to da big guy! Tian Tian

Tian Tian, which means 'more & more', is a panda who lives up to his name.  He has a ferocious appetite along with an appetite for attention.  He was born at the Panda Research Center in Wolong, August 27, 1997.  From what I have heard, his adorable face with his characteristic droopy eye patches garnered him alot of attention as a cub there providing Wolong with a poster child of sorts.   

He came to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., along with his partner, Mei Xiang on December 6, 2000.  You can usually find him in the first yard either eating or crashed out in his cooled 'panda cave'. 

He absolutely loves his partner Mei (photo second to the bottom) and will constantly pursue her attentions when they are put together.  He has tried his darnest in helping Mei to produce a cub by natural mating, but it just hasn't worked out yet for them, but he can be proud of his son, Tai Shan , pictured at the bottom, who just recently turned 3 years old, born through artificial insemination using Tian's sperm.

Happy Birthday, big guy, we love you and don't give up trying to have a cub the natural way.  Thanks to RoxandaBear of flickr for these wonderful photos that they just recently took at the NZ.   

 

Chengdu Pandas - 1

With the earthquake in Wolong, we no longer can view their live webcams until they get back up and running.  Fortunately, Chengdu Panda Research Base has a satellite website that has three live webcams.  If you remember, they helped take in pandas that were being evacuated from Wolong.  The site is in Chinese, but just look half way down the page, look for the diagram with pandas in it and camera1, camera2, camera3.

So, you can tune in, remember the time difference from where you live.  If not, I will tune in when I can and put together a little segment of what I saw that night.  Nothing like watching panda cubs play.   Watch for blogs titled Chendu Pandas.  Here is the first from last night. 

Lun Lun

While we wait to see if Lun Lun will have a cub or not this year, here is a little video with Lun having her first cub in 2006.

Happy 11th Birthday, Lun Lun, Zoo Atlanta

Lovely, Lun Lun of Zoo Atlanta celebrates her birthday today, while at the same time experiencing a pregnancy or psuedopregnancy.  As the zoo reports on their Lun Lun and cub update blog dated August 22, 2008, "Lun Lun is continuing to sleep the days away. About the only thing that has changed in the last few days is that as of yesterday, she has gone off eating her biscuits, apple and pear. Basically all she’s willing to eat is sugarcane, banana (without the peel) and a few handfuls of bamboo leaves. This is something that we want to see as she gets closer to a potential birth, as food intake becomes less of a priority." 

More then likely they will update their blog today and you can be sure if Lun does have a cub, I will let you know ASAP here on PLO. I will be adding a small group of videos I took off the Zoo Atlanta videos site here shortly, showing the birth of her first panda cub, Mei Lan and followups.  If Lun Lun does have another panda cub, you can watch her and the cub live on their live webcam site, just don't let your boss catch you!

Lun was born at the Chengdu Research Base, Chengdu, China.  She has beautiful fluffy cheeks, which the Chinese consider a special trait in pandas.  It looks like she passed those sweet traits on to her cub Mei Lan.

   

Lun's partner is Yang Yang who was also born at the Chengdu Base and has been together with Lun since he was 1 year old.  They had their first cub in Atlanta on September 6, 2006. 

So Lun Lun, you take care of yourself on this your 11th Birthday.  Like all of our giant pandas bears in the U.S., you are special and we are blessed to have you with us in this crazy world today.