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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Watch those fingers, this cub’s got nippers!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Note to the people who give Zoo Atlanta’s baby giant panda her weekly checkups: Watch your fingers.
She’s got teeth now.
In related developments, the zoo is making available a limited number of tickets for people who want to witness the cub-naming Dec. 15.
The tickets, which costs $5 on top of zoo admission price, will allow people to watch a live video feed of the ceremony, taking place at 10 a.m. at the zoo. About 250 ticket-holders will be given seats at the zoo’s Coca-Cola World Studio to watch.
Selecting the cub’s name will be an exercise in democracy; people will get to vote for their favorite from among 10. The voting will take place Dec. 1-10 here at ajc.com.
The 10 names will have been submitted by zoo staff, media organizations, sponsors and residents of Sichuan province in China, the panda’s homeland. They will have the approval of zoo staff and officials at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding in China.
The cub will be 100 days old when she is given a name, which reflects a Chinese tradition. When a panda cub reaches that milestone, it is likely to survive.
And what of the cub’s parents? Parenthood has not had much of an impact on Yang Yang, the cub’s father. He’s been on display constantly since the cub’s birth. Lun Lun has been with the youngster nearly constantly, but has now returned for limited public viewing.
She’s still segregated from Yang Yang, zoo officials said, but regularly steps out to eat before returning to her cub, which has not been put on display.
For more information about the pandas, or to get a ticket, log on to www.zooatlanta.org.
OK, they’re baby teeth, two incisors in the upper jaw that zoo employees discovered during the unnamed cub’s regular checkup Wednesday morning. But they are, after all, in a bear’s mouth.
Dr. Maria Crane, Zoo Atlanta’s senior veterinarian, made the discovery during the checkup, normally held on Thursdays but moved to Wednesday this week for Thanksgiving. She carefully inserted a determined index finger into the little panda’s mouth. The cub, a furry ball of reluctance, grudgingly complied.
“You’ve got some teeth today,” Crane said.
She got more than that in the checkup, her ninth. Crane gave the cub her second canine distemper shot. The youngster bore it with bruin-like stoicism. She didn’t peep.
Here are some more findings:
• The panda, born Sept. 6, has added about another pound in the last six days. She’s now 9.1 pounds. (By comparison, her mama, Lun Lun, weighs about 240.)
• Her vision and hearing are getting better all the time. She submitted to an ear exam, her head turned sideways, her eyes watching everybody watching her.
• Her front legs, already strong, are getting stronger. She popped up on them like an athlete preparing to do push-ups. Her back legs are still a little shaky.
• Her voice is growing, too. She shared her sentiments several times during the examination — “vocalization,” Crane called it. You could safely call it a squawk.
• Her length? That’s a mystery. Last week, the zoo reported that she stretched 22.4 inches from one end to the other. This week, the measurement from nose to tail was nearly an inch shorter: 21.6 inches.
• No, the baby panda has not shrunk, said Susan Elliott, a spokeswoman for the zoo. “Securing more accurate measurements may be more difficult” now, Elliott said.
• Translation: The cub is stronger, wiggling more than ever.
• And this: She’s got teeth now.
