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Monday, November 27, 2006
Zoo’s panda cam hours cut back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Panda lovers, you’re just going to have to grimace and bear the change. Zoo Atlanta’s Panda Cam is no longer 24/7.
The camera that had afforded panda fans an unblinking, unfailing glimpse into the lives of giant panda Lun Lun and her unnamed cub now is operating on banker’s hours — and East Coast hours, at that.
The camera now operates only Monday-Friday, between the hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
If you’ve been logging on late night or during the weekend to see the baby panda and her mom, forget it. Zoo Atlanta’s Web site won’t have any live images.
Or, if you like peeking at the duo during the work week, but live in Birmingham — that’s in the Central Time Zone, an hour behind Atlanta — you’d better get in the habit of logging on between the hours of 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
If you live in LA, three time zones away? Set the coffee maker for 7 a.m.
Tel Aviv? London? Do the math and act accordingly.
Earthlink is now sponsoring the camera, which had been underwritten by CNN.com until the zoo could find a permanent sponsor.
“Earthlink is doing a phenomenal job and a huge favor to Zoo Atlanta” by taking over the camera’s costs, said zoo spokeswoman Susan Elliott.
Earthlink was happy to assume the sponsorship, said Jerry Grasso, a spokesman for the company. He declined to say what the sponsorship cost.
“The panda is big news,” he said.
It is. Zoo Atlanta reports that the Panda Cam has averaged 50,000 visits daily. Such popularity is not cheap, Elliott said. Giving online viewers unlimited access to the mother and cub racked up staff costs: the cam was manned around the clock.
The increased use of bandwidth to provide access at all hours also added up, said Elliott, who declined to say what the camera had cost.
The unlimited hours came to an end Wednesday, and they aren’t likely to come back, Elliott said.
“It all boils down to costs,” she said.
The news made some panda fans boil — Colleen Horan of Lansing, Mich., for one, who routinely logs on to see the duo. She calls the unnamed cub “Miss Wiggles”.
“I was very disappointed, extremely disappointed” to learn that the hours had been cut back, said Horan, 44, who liked to log on at night to check on the cub.
Panda fan Dana Meyer of Martinsburg, W.Va., wants a constant camera on the baby panda so she can keep close tabs on the cub’s progress.
“She’s growing so fast,” said Meyer, who communicates with other cub-lovers online. “We’ve all been drawn in by the video of this panda cub. “We’ve watched her since birth.”
She can still watch, of course. Meyer can still scratch that panda itch when she gets it, provided that itch occurs during the work week, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. That’s East Coast time.
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