Tai Shan Update

All this newborn cub talk makes me wonder how Tai Shan is doing. He's now two years and three or so months old. Weighing in at a husky 153 pounds, he seems to be getting along just fine. Some other Tai Shan news bits from the past year:

* The National Zoo is the only zoo in the US to allow mother bear and cub to undergo the natural weaning process. As a result, Tai Shan is the only panda cub bred in captivity to stay with his mother for more than 18 months. In the wild, panda cubs start leaving their mums around a year and a half, so cubs in US zoos are generally weaned at about that age. (In China, panda cubs are weaned at around six months). As Tai Shan grew closer to his second birthday, Mei Xiang began pushing her cub away, allowing Tai to grow into an independent and confident bear of his own right. Tai now lives apart from his mother and, even when in enclosures right next to each other, mother and son generally ignore one another's presence. His father, Tian Tian, has never had much to do with the cub's upbringing. He's not a deadbeat, that's just the way pandas do it.

* Tai Shan has learned a neat trick - he will stick his arm through the bars of his training cage and let the keepers draw blood from him without flinching. This makes it easier for the keepers to take blood samples without anesthesia. I'll bet a lot of pediatricians wish their patients were similarly trained! What a good bear.

* Tai Shan is a south paw. He holds bamboo stalks in his left paw as he chows down.

* Tai can eat upwards of 17 pounds of bamboo in a single night. He has the honor of holding the Zoo record for most piles of panda poop in a single night - 18.

* Tai Shan is clicker trained by zoo staff, much like dogs are.

In April, the National Zoo announced that Tai Shan would be extending his stay in the US for two more years. The original terms of the loan agreement between the Smithsonian and the China Wildlife Conservation Association were that any cub born to the leased adults would be sent back to China after the cub's second birthday. Thanks to the Zoo Director's efforts, DC residents get to keep him for two more years. Which is totally fair, because China has lots of pandas already. Here's to two more years!