Posts tagged "national zoo"

Still bummed about yesterday's news that Ming Ming, the world's oldest giant panda, is dead? Yeah, us too. But the universe taketh away, and the universe giveth. Maybe.

Scientists at the National Zoo in D.C. are saying that there's reason to believe that their panda, Mei Xiang, might be--might be--pregnant following artificial insemination in January, according to the Associated Press. Yesterday the zoo announced that Mei Xiang's hormone levels are on the rise, which could indicate a pregnancy. It's difficult to tell for sure because giant panda fetuses don't develop until the end of the gestation period... one of several reasons why getting giant pandas to mate and save their own species from extinction is such a confounding process. Another reason is that false pregnancies are not uncommon with giant pandas. Mei Xiang herself has fooled us before. On the other hand, she's also successfully given birth before, to Tai Shan in 2005.

Zoo scientists will continue to monitor Mei Xiang with ultrasounds. If she is pregnant, the baby is due in July. Keep your fingers crossed. May we have another giant panda in the world, and may it live as long as the late Ming Ming.

If kittens melt your heart, you might want to plan a trip to the Smithsonian National Zoo in 2011. The zoo's seven lion cubs, born in two litters last summer, have passed their 12-week health exams and are now being allowed outdoors to play in their yard -- where you can watch them run, pounce, explore and maybe even swim!

Before the cubs could go out on their own, each had to pass a simple swimming test. "We know lions aren't typically big swimmers," says Great Cats curator Craig Saffoe. "But cubs will be cubs, and we feel inevitably somebody's going to play around and knock somebody else into the moat. So we took them outside to make sure that they could swim."

Pop-quiz time. What's the cutest animal? That's right, the giant panda. And what's the cutest thing a giant panda can be caught doing? No, I'm sorry; "sneezing" is only the second cutest thing. The correct answer: The cutest thing a giant panda can be caught doing is falling (literally!) asleep on its feet.

Tai Shan, the four-year-old panda in Washington's National Zoo, did just that last week. He tried fighting against the Sandman's spell, determined to stay upright, but eventually his drowsiness won out -- until his own forward momentum propelled him into a hilarious nap time somersault. Luckily for all of us, a zoogoer managed to capture Tai Shan's adorable clumsiness on camera, and shared her photos with the (UK) Daily Mail.