Posts tagged "panda cub"

Things Giant Pandas Are Known for: eating bamboo, being adorable

Things Giant Pandas Aren't Known for: high sex drives, physical grace

Nope, pandas aren't the most agile of Earth's creatures. They're big and slow, waddly, floppity, oafish even. Hey, panda, we admire your effort, but you shouldn't try to that again. You don't know your own species very well, do you?

Who even put a rocking horse there to begin with? It seems cruel. They had to know what the outcome would be. Were they intentionally trying to humiliate our cuddly buddy? Let's face it, pandas falling down on their butts is super cute for us, but the panda can't feel too great about himself. Mercifully, the camera pans away momentarily while our furry friend regains his feed and, hopefully, some of his dignity.

This happens every single time we take our panda cub to the Daily Squee jungle gym. First, he totters around (adorably, of course). Then, he climbs a little, maybe slides down the slide a time or two. Finally, we get into the "Mom. Mom! Look at me! MOM! Mommy! Check out what I'm doing! MommyMomMomMommyyyyyy!"

If he weren't so cute, we'd probably find ourselves totally annoyed, but how can you do anything but smile at that furry little face?

Celebrities get lots of perks, like big paychecks and cool freebies, but Jack Black takes the cake -- this morning, he got to help name an adorable 3-month-old giant panda cub, according to Zoo Atlanta.

The panda was named Po, after Black's "Kung Fu Panda" character, a role he'll reprise this May in "Kung Fu Panda 2." Not only is Black known for voicing a panda, but he's lent his star power to helping panda conservation as well.

Black posed with the cuddly cub, who can be seen on Zoo Atlanta's PandaCam. According to the zoo, this is just the beginning of a partnership between Zoo Atlanta and Dreamworks Animation. "Our organizations share a commitment to giant panda conservation, particularly at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding," said Raymond B. King, president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta. Dreamworks made a donation of an undisclosed amount to the zoo, reports TheBostonChannel.com, which should help with the $500,000-per-year lease the zoo pays China in order to display the pandas.

Po was born Nov. 3 to Lun Lun, and though he already has thousands of fans due to the PandaCam, he won't debut to the public until the end of March or beginning of April.

Look carefully -- only one of the pandas pictured above is actually a panda. Wildlife researchers in China's Sichuan province have been suiting up in their best panda costumes, but not because they're part of a nature-themed children's show. Instead, these researchers are using their clever disguises to prevent captive-born pandas from identifying with humans.

Chinese panda experts believe that the goofy-looking costumes may actually increase a panda cub's chances of survival when it's introduced into the wild. In 2006, according to The Washington Post, the research team introduced a captive-born male cub into the wild only to have it tragically rejected and killed by its free-roaming brethren.

This time around, researchers are doing everything in their power to ensure a successful introduction of the 4-month-old cub pictured above. That includes, of course, dressing up in panda costumes whenever they come in contact with the cute little guy. If the baby panda is taught to associate with only pandas, perhaps it will develop the social skills it needs to adapt to the wild.

The costume approach seems reasonable enough, and we are for anything that helps these creatures survive in the wild. Though we hope the researchers are also doused in their best panda-scented perfume.


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Break out the bamboo; it's time to celebrate! Our friends at MyDaily report that Zoo Atlanta's giant panda, Lun Lun, gave birth to her third cub this morning just after 5:30 a.m. The first cub, Mei Lan, was born in 2006, and Xi Lan was born in 2008. We are sure that Yang Yang, the father of all three, couldn't be more proud.

No photos or videos of the panda cub have been released, but that doesn't make this news any less monumental. The baby is the only giant panda cub born in a U.S. zoo this year!

MyDaily also included this classic panda video which we had to repost. There's no way the mama's reaction to her little baby's sneeze won't crack you up, even if you've seen this video a thousand times.



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Researchers in China recently made an exciting (and adorable) discovery when they found a brown giant-panda cub.

Giant pandas are found only in China and already among the most endangered species on the planet. But brown giant pandas, which have brown fur instead of the normal black, are far more rare. This is only the fifth brown giant panda ever recorded, reports PeoplePets.

The panda cub, which is just two months old and has yet to open its eyes or walk, was found in the Foping Giant Panda Reserve in Shaanxi Province, which, according to China Daily, is the same place the first giant brown panda was discovered back in 1985.

This new cub's mother is black and white, like most giant pandas. And the first giant brown panda, Dandan, gave birth to three black and white pandas (all of whom died at a young age, sadly). Experts still don't understand why some pandas are born with the more unusual brown markings. Maybe this fuzzy new addition will help shed more light on the subject!

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