Home > Panda Watch > Archives > 2007 > January > 12
Friday, January 12, 2007
Seeing Mei Lan: What you need to know
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tips and information if you’re going to Zoo Atlanta to see the baby panda:
What: For the best chance to see Mei Lan, be at Zoo Atlanta early in the morning.
Hours: 9 a.m. for yearly members; 9:30 a.m. for the general public. Zoo closes at 5:30 p.m.
Admission: Ranges from $12.99 to $17.99. Free for children 2 and younger.
For more information: 404-624-9453. The zoo is located at 800 Cherokee Ave. Its Web site is zooatlanta.org
ALSO: • Photos of Mei Lan’s public debut.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment |
Mei Lan meets her adoring public
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The first Atlantan to see Mei Lan, America’s newest giant panda cub, in person Friday morning during its inaugural public viewing at Zoo Atlanta had a relevant question.
“Why isn’t the mommy going over to the baby?,” 4-year-old Megan Dobso of Fayetteville asked her mother.
The answer was obvious to more than a dozen members of the media who were taping, photographing and observing the cub’s every wobble: While Mei Lan was tentatively exploring her new surroundings, Lun Lun, her 9-year-old mother, was busy eating.
Leaning against a tree limb in the pandas’ temperature-controlled “dayroom” habitat, Lun Lun was so preoccupied with munching bamboo that when her 4-mnth-old cub came to climb on her, she fended off her 16-pound baby with a raised leg or arm, as if to say, “Not now, kid, I’m starving.”
Mei Lan, undaunted, tried repeatedly to get some attention. But Lun Lun wasn’t buying it. So, after 45 minutes of touring the habitat — balancing on a branch and toppling off, walking in what looked like slow-motion, trying in vain to scale an opening back into her den — the baby cub did what tuckered-out youngsters tend to do.
She lay down and fell asleep.
“It’s amazing, she’s so cute,” said Kim Dobso, Megan’s mom. “I get tears in my eyes she’s so cute. We can’t get enough of her.”
The zoo thinks a lot more folks feel the same way, although there was no crowd early Friday. Zoo officials suggest those wanting to see the panda cub come early in the morning to the zoo in the coming days.
IF YOU GO
What: For the best chance to see Mei Lan, be at Zoo Atlanta early in the morning.
Hours: 9 a.m. for yearly members; 9:30 a.m. for the general public. Zoo closes at 5:30 p.m.
Admission: $17.99-$12.99. Free for children 2 and younger.
For Information: 404-624-9453. 800 Cherokee Ave. www.zooatlanta.org
SCENES FROM THE DAY
Photos of the cub’s debut.
Services »
