Sunday, January 10, 2010

My Town Monday: Pandamania in San Diego, CA

If you live in San Diego or have visited here or have watched the news recently, one thing you'll have figured out about us: we love our zoo!

And, right now, we'll all about giant pandas! Your average man on the San Diego street could fill your ear with panda facts, particularly Yun Zi panda facts.

Here is our Yun Zi, the FIFTH Giant Panda born at the San Diego Zoo. Ahem. Need I point out that this is a U.S. zoo record? We also have more giant pandas than any other U.S. zoo (five). Not that I'm bragging...

-Yun Zi means Son of Cloud. (From this, you may have guessed his mother's name: Bai Yun/White Cloud)
-When Yun Zi was born this past August, he was the size of a stick of butter and hairless and blind (just like a stick of butter!). This is all normal, by the way.
-Mother pandas look after their babies for two years. (If I were a giant panda mother, I would already be experiencing empty nest syndrome. There are days when this sounds quite wonderful.)
-Pandas spend about 12 hours a day, eating 84 pounds of bamboo. They have to eat so much bamboo because it's super low in nutrients. (This is a little like me grazing on my favorite food--licorice!) We grow bamboo on and off the zoo grounds, just to feed our pandas' habit.

Yun Zi's four siblings were born here (3 sisters and a brother). Yun Zi has been the shyest and, as a result, didn't go on display until he was 5 months old (last Thursday). He'll be on display 9am-noon daily, unless there's inclement weather (yeah, right, like we experience that!) or he's moody or ill. He currently weighs about 19 pounds (our chubbiest so far at this age). He lives in the enclosure with his mother, father and two sisters (his other two siblings were returned to China).

Oh, you want to join in our pandamania? Here's the link to the pandacam!

Now, hop on over to the My Town Monday blog to see what the others are posting about.

Yes, this is our adorable Yun Zi again!


Sources:
http://www.kidzworld.com/article/22507-introducing-yun-zi-the-cutest-panda-bear-cub-ever
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giant_panda.html
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/ex_panda_station.html
the San Diego Union Tribune, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010

24 comments:

  1. I've only ever been to San Diego once in my life, but I absolutely adored the place.

    I went to the zoo in my spare time and loved it. I'm so jealous you have pandas! Wish I could show my girls.

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  2. Who doesn't love pandas! Great post and marvelous pics.

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  3. They are cute. we have a red panda at the zoo in Green Bay--and visit him every trip. He's the third favorite (first being the otters, second being the giraffes).

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  4. That's got to be just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

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  5. Green Girl: My favorite exhibit is the polar bears. Love those guys!

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  6. Your zoo is THE best. The most fantastic thing I've ever seen was there - polar bears playing! They'd also just had a new panda when we visited but it was too young to be viewed. I very much hope to visit again one day.

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  7. Glad I found you! I look forward to reviewing one of your books for my blog. :)

    -Jami

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  8. You are so lucky to have pandas. I bet you have elephants too. Cold climates have limits on animals.

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  9. Patti, we most certainly have elephants--both African and Asian. :)

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  10. Gary, show your girls the pandacam! We spent breakfast with it showing on my laptop. :) There are videocams in other animals' exhibits too.

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  11. David, glad you liked the post. I can't take credit for the photos. They're from the zoo's website. Well, I guess i can take credit for finding and copying them.. ;)

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  12. Great idea Barrie. Doing pandacam now!

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  13. Oh so so adorable. I saw pandas in San Diego zoo few years ago when first time they brought them to the zoo. Thanks for sharing. Anna :)

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  14. So cute! I hope to visit San Diego some day. I've never been that far south!

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  15. And Annie, when you're here, you could go even further south.....to Mexico! Ole!!

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  16. Green Girl, I have never seen a red panda. Now I feel I must google one!

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  17. Crazy Mom, oh yes, please do. :)

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  18. He is so, so cute!!!!! "Help mommy! I'm dangling from a treeeeee"..

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  19. I love pandas! Thanks for stopping by my blog--I'm glad I found yours!

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  20. Thanks for this delightful interlude in my day!


    Aloha, Friend


    Comfort Spiral

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  21. Wonderful panda photos!

    Melissa
    (Comment Challenge - M.A. Noeth)

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  22. I loved the pandas, they are amazingly cute.

    outstanding post.

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  23. Love the San Diego Zoo!! I think it's time for a road trip. Gotta see that baby panda before he grows up. :) Lucky you, living in SD.

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Comments are always welcome!