Gratuitous Pandas

You know, some people might find useful ways to pass their time. Me? I pride myself on finding highly entertaining yet ultimately useless pics and vids of baby pandas. Well worth the effort, imho.

Here's another [insert city name]-ist blog that is crazy about pandas. (If you will recall, the DCist blog went through a Pandodyssey-like phase cooing over Tai Shan.) The Shanghaiist has linked THREE adorably panda clips. SSFW: if you're pretending to work, be wary of annoyingly brisk holiday music in the first clip.

Follow that page's link to this one at Life in the Fast Lane, where an essay on the life of a panda - rife with illustration - awaits.

Pictured above: pandas en masse are cuter.

A panda, by any other name, would be so cute

The panda cub at the SD Zoo has a name! She will be called Zhen Zhen, which in Chinese translates as "I hate my name". Zhen Zhen turned 100 days old on Monday.

Despite the lousy appellation, she's still extremely cute.

More Gratuitous Panda Pics

What's the point of having a subversive-quasi- panda-related-blog if not for the occasional gratuitous panda cub slide show? Here are some images of the as-yet-unnamed cub getting a checkup at the San Diego Zoo. Guessing from the graininess of some of the pics, these images were taken with the Hubble space telescope while it was offline for repair. Cuteness abounds regardless.

Speaking of space, on the way to the farmer's market last night, I saw what some could only describe as "a flaming ball of fire" in the nighttime sky. Maybe it was a meteor or a comet, maybe it was just a plane. If someone at NASA could point that Hubble telescope towards the east-north-easterly sky tonight and, I dunno, just check it out, that'd be swell. If it is indeed a "flaming ball of fire" headed straight for Earth, I'd at least like to finish the beer in my fridge before impact.

These names are MEH at best

If you want, you can help name the San Diego Zoo's baby panda at the SD Zoo site. Your oh-so-original choices for names are:

* Li Hua - "Beautiful China"
* Ming Zhu - "Bright Treasure"
* Zhen Zhen - "Precious"
* Xiao Li - "Little Beauty"

BOOOOOOOOOOring! How about Stephen Col-banda the Panda? That way, when this ball of fuzz is sent back to a Chinese nature reserve in two years, all the other baby pandas will know it's an American panda! It has US citizenship already, so why not a name that shows the whole world that this "little beauty" is "built Ford tough" and not "Made in China"?

Pictured above: U! S! A!

News Anchors Act Unprofessional, Go "eeeeeeeee!" on Local TV

This clip from ABC-Chicago about the San Diego panda cub is funny. The video shows the female news casters squealing and cooing as they watch the news bite, which shows the baby cub crying as she receives a vaccination and attempts to wriggle free. Then it cuts to the lone male news caster on this night's broadcast, who is holding his hand over his mouth and looking like he's trying not to hurl. Now where might I have seen this look before?

The San Diego Zoo is soliciting names for the new fuzzball from zoo goers, today through October 14. Quick, someone help me translate "I-can't-believe-it's-not-Tai-Shan" into Chinese!

It's a She

San Diego's newest panda is a girl. At six weeks old, she now weighs a whopping four pounds and looks less like a wriggly grub and more like a giant panda. Certified pandologists call this the "adorable stuffed animal" phase. Awwwww!

Pictured at right: High five, yo.

Surprise Party? For Moi?

Zoo Atlanta's throwing a birthday party for Mei Lan. I think I already posted that fact but I needed an excuse to post another pic of her. They're just so cuddly looking at the ripe old age of one. Pictured right: Her eyes are squinty because she's Asian.

live from san diego, it's wednesday afternoon

This is a snapshot of Bai Yun and her unnamed cub taken today from the San Diego Zoo's panda cam. I spent the entire fall of 2005 (and countless taxpayer dollars) trying to figure out how to take snapshots or screen shots from the National Zoo's panda cam so that I could post them here and I never did figure that out. The San Diego zoo's web site now has a feature where you can email snapshots to yourself or your fellow panda lovers straight from the panda cam. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

A new breed of baby boomer

Panda boomers, that is!

This article from The Hindu Online addresses the recent boom in panda births in China over the last couple of years. Years in the making, this boom is a mixed blessing as pandas large and small begin to overrun the place.

If they want, I'll take some off their hands. They can sleep in my tub.




Pictured right: Cutest infestation ever!

Been There, Done Panda

According to this article in the San Diego Union Tribune, we're over it! Newborn baby panda? Meh. So what? San Diego has seen several of those. Big deal huh?

Pandologists (and other panda people) take heart! It's okay that people are feeling a bit ho-hum about another panda births. Let's hope that one day, panda births are so common it isn't even newsworthy anymore. Feeling blase over yet another baby panda is way better than feeling blase over whether pandas go extinct.

Pictured right: They should name me Cotton Candy.

Sneaky butterstick

Congratulations to a continent: a female panda in Vienna's Tiergarten Schoenbrunn Zoo gave birth to her first cub last Thursday, the first panda cub born in Europe in 25 years. The last panda cub born in Europe was in 1982 in Madrid, Spain.

[Pictured right: cubs make yummy snacks]

The cub's birth came as a complete surprise to Austrian zoo officials, as they were unaware that Yang Yang was even pregnant after they mated her with Long Hui in the spring. Equally surprising is the fact that she was impregnated by natural means, not artificial insemination. Most pregnant pandas in captivity conceive via artificial means.

Sounds like the general panda population could take an evolutionary cue from these two.

It also sounds like they need some certified pandologists working over there at the Austrian Zoo!

Update: This little cub was a twin; his/her sibling didn't survive.

This Could Be You!

See a couple of pandas behind some glass in some overcrowded humid city zoo enclosure? Bah! This guy -----------------> travelled all the way to China to pet a whole bunch of baby pandas. I have to warn you - this article will make you green with envy and possibly induce serious spontaneous trip-planning. Amazingly, it only costs $130 to cop a panda feel. TOO CUTE!


http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/traveltips/08/13/pandas/


Sorry for the ugly link - I can't figure out if I can hyperlink through Safari so, well, deal.

Here's another article on four newborn panda cubs born on the same day in China. There are a couple of images showing interesting interaction between a mother panda - black, white, furry and huge - and her baby cub - tiny, pink, and wriggly looking.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=475339&in_page_id=1770

Androgynous Stick o' Butter, now one week old

The newest panda at the San Diego Zoo is doing great. He/She turned one week old on Friday. The cub's sex is still unknown, as zookeepers will keep their distance until the mama bear leaves the cub alone for longer periods of time.

Are we through yet, giving panda cubs silly rhyming Chinese names? Is it any wonder why they don't want to procreate with each other with names like Frou Frou and Ping Pong? (and the 3 centimeters business - that could have something to do with it as well.)

Isn't it about time we started giving these American born pandas, American names? That way, even though we have to return them to China, at least we'll be able to distinguish them from the native-born pandas. Why not something really American like Chevrolet? Or Tiger Woods? Who's chairing this committee anyway?

some actual panda news

Summer is baby panda season - they're sprouting like weeds!

Bai Yun the panda has given birth! The sixteen year old panda at the San Diego zoo has given birth once more to healthy bouncy baby butterstick. A collective sigh went up all over downtown San Diego, followed immediately by a "What the #&%!???" as the San Diego Zoo panda cam immediately crashed. I think it's back up again. Click the link above to watch video of the birth (uhh, I didn't) or see the pandas in their zoo homes.

If you're going to be in Georgia this fall, join Zoo Atlanta in celebrating the one year birthday of their panda cub, Mei Lan. Birthday festivities will include a party and a sunset safari through the park.

When pandas attack - a zoo keeper in China required 100 stitches when he was attacked by a panda. I suspect he was trying to hug it.