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.

Happy 1st Birthday, Fu Long of Vienna, Austria!

 

Well, son of gun, that little pistol from the Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria is one year old already!

Fu Long 'Happy Dragon', born August 23, 2007, a male, is the first European baby panda since 1982, when a panda was born at the Madrid Zoo (by artificial insemination).  Fu Long was conceived by natural means.  Mating naturally is not common among captive pandas so congratulations to the proud parents, Yang Yang the mother and Long Hui the father.

   

 

I haven't collected any information here on these pandas yet.  But now that I have the U.S. pandas pretty well documented, you will be seeing photos and family histories of other pandas from around the world for you to look over also.

Beijing FUWA, bring back memories

Caught a glimpse of this photo on the Washington Post  photo site. Oh, it brought back the memory of a wonderful experience while working at Walt Disney World back in the 80's. 

As part of Disney's training for management personnel, we had the opportunity to dawn a Disney character costume for one day and walk among the guests.  I didn't get the chance to be one of the premium characters like Goofy or Minnie Mouse, but one of the chipmunks.  It is an experience I will never forget.  Going out into the park in complete anonymity, and watching the children's faces and happiness to see you no matter what character you were was incredible to say the least.  We were given instructions on how to move to animate our characters, but under no circumstance were we to speak.  Unfortunately, the costumes are hot and cumbersome, which I am sure is what these people are experiencing in this photo.  Am sure once they get rested and go back out into the crowd they will have one of the biggest smiles on their faces inside while bringing joy to many on the outside.

Happy 5th Birthday, Mei Sheng

 

You may ask, now which panda is Mei Sheng?  He was born on August 19, 2003.  His parents are Bai Yun and Gao Gao of the San Diego Zoo.  Mei Sheng no longer resides as the San Diego Zoo but currently at the Bifengzia Base in Sichuan County, China, all part of the arrangement that all of the U.S. Zoo's have with the Chinese.  Somewhere between their 2nd and 3rd year the pandas that are born here are sent over to China to help in the breeding program there.  Mei left on November 5, 2007.  His going back to China was delayed due to the bird flu scare at the time. 

Nonetheless,  'Born in the USA', has had quite an adventure since leaving the U.S.  Just after he got over to the Wolong Nature Reserve, the keepers discovered that he was going to need some extra room to roam around in, as he was climbing over the walls of his enclosure and going into the other pandas areas.  Thanks to their alertness in this matter, neither he nor any other pandas got hurt as a result of this.  So, the staff at Wolong decided to send him up to Bifengzia which is also a part of the Wolong Reserve but it has a little more room for the pandas. 

 

This photo is of the Bifengzia base.  As a matter of fact that is where some of the first pandas were evacuated to just after the May 12, 2008 earthquake.  Thanks to Chet_ of flickr for providing the photo that was taken out of the Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda, 2007 guide.   

We hear through the San Diego Zoo that Mei is doing fine and enjoying his new digs. 

Beijing Olympic Champions, Giant Pandas

For those of us who can't make it over to see the giant pandas who are part of the celebration going on during the Beijing Olympics, we can enjoy them through the eyes of others.  A panda pal yingying816 of YouTube, brought back some video of their recent visit to see the pandas and I've put together a compilation of them here for us to enjoy.  Thanks so much, yingying816.

Mei Xiang, 'beautiful fragrance'

Zoo Atlanta's Lun Lun within range of expected pregnancy

I am still watching Lun Lun of Zoo Atlanta to see how she is coming along with her pregnancy or psuedopregnancy.    As I reported back at the end of July the zoo has made all kinds of preparations including reinstalling the camera back into the den area so that if Lun has a cub we can watch them interact.  That camera is not currently available for us to view yet, but just keep checking their usual live webcam site and when the zoo wants us to see what is going on it will be through the same link.

In the meantime, Lun's darling cub Mei Lan continues to be the star attraction on the webcam.  Just to give you an idea of how big giant pandas are while you are watching the webcams, as of August 1st, here are the current weights of the pandas.   Lun Lun is 230 lbs., Yang Yang is 275 lbs., and Mei Lan the cub is 110 lbs.  My goodness I had to do a double take when I read Mei Lan's weight!  She will be 2 years old on September 6, 2008. 

National Zoo says no cub for Mei Xiang this year.

After all Mei Xiang went through over the last month or so, it looks like she will not be having a cub this year. 

It is still so much of a mystery to the scientist and veterinarians who study giant pandas, in regards to their having offspring and the phenomena of psuedopregnancy. 

With the help of sonograms and urinary progesterone levels being tracked regularly, the most recent tests indicate their is no sign of a fetus. 

  Even as I watched Mei this morning on the web cams she was still experiencing maternal behaviors, going into the den area, cuddling her kong toy.  The National Zoo says she will still exhibit some maternal behavior for a short time still but gradually will return to her normal behavior.  The zoo keeps extensive records of all of the lab tests and her behaviors during this time, in order to help them learn and understand the giant pandas during a possible pregnancy, in hopes that all the pieces of the puzzle will come together.

A big thanks goes out to all of the volunteers who manned the cams for the 24 hour watch while recording her behaviors, the keepers, technicians, scientists, veterinarians and staff for keeping a close eye on Mei Xiang's health during this time, ensuring she was a comfortable as possible during the process.  The regular reporting of her pregnancy on their pregnancy watch page was very informative and greatly appreciated.