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Thursday, November 2, 2006
Snerk! Panda cub fit as a fiddle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She’s gained weight. Her teeth are round little nubs. Her nails are as sharp as roof tacks.
She is, in other words, in great shape.
The baby giant panda at Zoo Atlanta underwent her weekly exam Thursday morning. It’s a routine procedure designed to monitor the cub’s development — a chance, too, to wow her handlers. Their assessment? The child is longer, stronger, more prone to let people know what she’s thinking.
“Snerk!” The 57-day-old baby grunted once and fixed eyes as bright as black marbles on her handlers, three energetic young women who came to poke and probe. She’d just been removed from the heated space she shares with her mom, Lun Lun, and looked vaguely irritated.
Maria Crane, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, gently thrust a glove-clad index finger in the little creature’s mouth. White jaws clamped shut, a furry vise. The latex snapped softly as Crane removed her finger.
“She has teeth,” Crane announced.
But that’s not all. The baby has grown more than an inch; from soft little nose to furry little tail, she now stretches 19.5 inches. She’s put on about a half-pound in the last seven days, making the scales groan at 6 pounds. The ears? Last week, they were beginning to stand erect. This week, they were still rising, and sat atop her head like surprised wooly-worms.
She is doing just what a baby panda should be doing after less than two months on this earth. She’s eating, sleeping, hanging close to mama, and making the occasional editorial comment:
“Snerk!”
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