I am glad to announce that Mei Xiang turned ten years old on Tuesday. Happy Birthday Mei Xiang. Lets hope and pray she has another little baby panda to cuddle soon. Below is a chart of her hormone profile and at this page you can watch and track her progress.
Today is my panda baby’s birthday. Or rather, Tai Shan’s third birthday. He’s the panda that made me fall completely head over heels in love with pandas. I even drove from Colorado to Washington DC to see him on his first birthday. Yes, I’m that crazy.
So, it’s a bit bittersweet to see him celebrating his third birthday already. He’s grown so fast!
You can wish him a happy birthday on the National Zoo’s Website. Below are a few of my favorite photos of Tai from the National Zoo Wallpaper collection. To see all of the wallpapers and download your own, donate! It’d be the best birthday present little Tai Shan could ever ask for. (Besides a healthy little brother or sister!)
I saw this post on Cute Overload and almost melted. These little guys were born at the Edmonton Zoo in Alberta on May 26th.
Snuggles!
From an AP article:
WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Zoo says panda mother Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) is showing a spike in hormone levels, a sign that she might be pregnant again.
But there’s no reliable pregnancy test for pandas, and this could be a false alarm.
Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated in March with semen from Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN), the zoo’s male giant panda. Test results Thursday indicate Mei Xiang will either give birth or come to the end of a false pregnancy in mid- to late-July.
Oh how I hope this is true. The entire reason I fell completely in love with pandas was because of the Panda Cam at the National Zoo. I drove across the country, alone, to see Tai Shan on his first birthday. And before you think I’m completely insane, I did actually go to see the sites in DC and have a lovely vacation as well, not just to celebrate a panda’s 1st birthday. (Or at least that’s what I tell people. 
)
How exciting! I hope Tai Shan gets a new little brother or sister! Eeeep!
Isn’t he cute! He’s doing a little dance!
So, I’ve heard tons about panda mating lately and I don’t know why. The newest? Panda ‘Sex”ercise!
An apple is dangled from a string above the panda, luring it to stand on two legs as it tries to reach the treat. The exercise helps the panda to walk on its rear legs, thus strengthening the pelvic and hip muscles and better equipping it for sex.
Read more about it here.
I saw this adorable panda photo in a story on metro.co.uk about the Olympic pandas. Such a cutie!
I want to snuggle you beyond words little panda cub.
Here’s a quick little fact I didnt’ know about pandas:
The male panda can only mate for at most 30 seconds at a time and hence the chances of getting the female pregnant are very low.
To help increase birth rates, researchers are testing the effectiveness of Viagra on captive pandas. They’re hoping it will increase the male’s desire to breed as well as prolong the actual act. Read more about it on BBC News.
Here’s a cute video of the eight pandas that arrived in Beijing.
“Eight ‘Olympic Pandas’ chosen to cheer on the games this summer were introduced to the public at Beijing zoo on Thursday. Visitors queued to buy tickets and take pictures from outside a newly expanded glass enclosure.”
If you have Windows Vista, you can get this nifty little gadget that allows you to have the San Diego panda cam directly on your windows desktop at all times! I’d be even less productive than I am now if I had this installed.
The San Diego Zoo is letting you help name the new panda baby that many have already dubbed Bai Bee. The submissions will be accepted for 10 days; Friday, Oct. 5 through Sunday, Oct. 14. As with anything fun, there are a few rules:
The name must be in Chinese (pinyin).
The name must have an English translation.
The name must be symbolic in meaning.
The name must be delivered in person to the Zoo.
Did you catch that last one? Hand delivered. All of us long distance admirers will just have to find an ingenious way of getting our favorite names submitted. Luckily, after the preliminary names are selected the voting will be open to everyone online.
