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Friday, October 6, 2006
Panda cub celebrates one-month birthday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Happy Birthday, whatever your name is.
Zoo Atlanta’s still nameless panda cub celebrated her one-month birthday Friday by getting another clean bill of health. Zoo veterinarian Maria Crane performed the second medical exam on Lun Lun’s baby shortly before 10 a.m. “She’s healthy and growing well, as we expect,” Crane said.
The cub has more than doubled in weight — to 2.9 pounds — since her first checkup Sept. 25, when she was handled by humans for the first time and discovered to be female.
“One more meal and she would have been three pounds,” Crane joked.
The cub has grown from 12 inches in length to more than 15 inches, from nose to tip of tail.
During the examination Friday, the first one opened to a news reporter, the cub bobbed and yawned while Crane measured her heartbeat, listened to her lungs, checked the coloring inside her mouth, and guided her paws to make prints in a special wax.
With more wispy black-and-white fur growing in, the baby now looks like a miniature version of her mother, except for some pink skin still evident on her snout. But she’s still not much bigger than a Beanie Baby.
The morning exam did not go off without a hitch. Shortly after 8 a.m., zoo staff initiated the procedure shortly by coaxing Lun Lun out of the birthing den to eat in an adjacent holding area. With biscuit in paw, however, mother panda quickly became suspicious, turning around repeatedly to eye her cub as Crane prepared to pick up the baby. At that point, zoo officials decided to wait to conduct the physical.
“Something was off for her this morning,” Crane said shortly after. “She knew something was different. She sensed other people around.”
Shortly before 10 a.m, the exam began, and finished five minutes later. “We’re getting this down pat,” said Dennis Kelly, Zoo President and CEO.
The cub, the only panda born outside China this year, is expected to be named 100 days after birth — Dec. 15 — according to Chinese custom. It will be unveiled to the public in late December or early January, zoo officials said.
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