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Thursday, December 14, 2006
Panda baby takes first wobbly step
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Panda fans, post this on your message boards: She’s walking.
Zoo Atlanta’s 99-day-old giant panda cub rose on four shaky legs Thursday morning and took a few tentative steps — a first for the youngster.
She wobbled like a drunk in a windstorm, but there was no mistaking her intentions: She’s ready to move on her own, nearly in time for her naming ceremony.
It happened while Dr. Maria Crane, the zoo’s senior veterinarian, conducted her weekly exam of the cub, born Sept. 6. Joining her was Dr. Zhang Zhihe of the Chengdu Base of Giant Panda Breeding, in Atlanta for the cub’s 100-day naming ceremony, taking place Friday.
She’d been sound asleep, curled as tight as a comma, when Crane reached into her den. The cub slowly came awake while technicians weighed and measured her.
She stuck out a sturdy left front leg and dug her claws into a fiber mat examiners had placed on the exam table. The right front leg followed. And then…
The left rear leg reached out, shaking. The right leg followed. She quivered all over for a moment, then rose. The cub swayed on her feet. With Crane hovering like a worried mom, the cub took one step, another, a third. She flopped back down on the mat, looking sort of winded from all the exercise.
Zoo officials were as tickled as if one of their own youngsters had grabbed a stool and pushed it all around the kitchen. They’ve been predicting the cub will be walking by early next year or sooner.
“She tried to walk off the end of the table,” Crane said.
That’s not all. Her nails, shiny and hard, got clipped for the second time. Crane left them long enough so the youngster can get plenty of traction should she decide to take a turn around her den.
Here are the vitals:
She weighs 12 pounds now, a “significant gain” of more than a pound in the last week.
She’s about 26.5 inches long — more than an inch of growth in the past week — but that’s just an estimate. Her wiggling makes getting an accurate reading about as easy as threading a needle on a roller coaster.
Her fur now seems as thick as that of her parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang.
In short, said Crane, she’s ready for her naming, taking place at a 10 a.m. ceremony. When everyone stands to cheer her name, maybe she will, too.
