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Thursday, October 26, 2006
Panda cub gets feisty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Maybe it’s because she feels her teeth beginning to show.
Or maybe she didn’t like the lens of the panda paparazzi hovering in her face.
Whatever the reason, Zoo Atlanta’s Giant Panda cub turned a little feisty Thursday morning. During her weekly physical, she squawked and suddenly lunged, albeit weakly, at a newspaper photographer who was busy clicking her profile. Then, almost instantly, she started to nod off to sleep.
At 50 days old, the panda baby weighs 5.5 pounds, a half pound more than last week, and has grown to 18 inches from nose to tip of tail.
“She’s growing very well, very steadily,” zoo veterinarian Maria Crane said. “Her incisors are beginning to erupt and her hair coat is much thicker than last week. She’s getting stronger. She’s a little more active and she’s trying to push up.” The cub is not expected to walk until about four months.
Meanwhile, mother panda Lun Lun, according to keeper Jay Pratte, is regaining muscle mass that was lost during pregnancy, when expectant pandas stop eating for the most part. She weighs about 105 kilos, or about 231 pounds, roughly ten pounds below her normal weight, he said.
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