YEP! SHE'S PREGGERS!

Expecting the pitty-pat of widdle cubby feetsies at any moment. Yay!

Live From San Diego

Mama bear Bai Yun from yesterday, having herself a snooze. She is on hopeful pregnancy watch, so cross all your fingers and toes for a new cubbie to be born later this year!

One Silly Bear

Captured live on the Pandacam just now... not-so-little-anymore Yun Zi at San Diego, taking a nap in a rather extraordinary position....

Bears and Boxes

Just got back from this year's Black and White Overnight at the San Diego Zoo. One of our activities was creating treat boxes for the bears. We actually missed seeing this ourselves, but one of the narrators got the shot of nearly-2-year-old Yun Zi beheading the box we made.

And here is the pandacam shot of the overnighters. We are the ones with the panda ears and blue shirts.

The Bamboo Boogaloo

Gao Gao spent a LOT of time this morning scent-marking all over the enclosure, not just on or near the gate.

Bai Yun came over a few times and sneered at him, then flipped her tail and walked away again. Talk about playing hard-to-get....

And then... SHE came to the gate looking for HIM, and he wasn't there!

Right about then, they switched the live cam over to Yun Zi's enclosure.......

Later, a new zoo blog entry was posted with the happy news that the happy couple finally had a successful rendezvous.

Which means we might, just might, hear the pitter-patter of new fuzzy feet this fall. ::fingers crossed::

Too Big To Sit On It Anymore

Yun Zi is back in the "classroom" exhibit, where Bai Yun the Mommy Monster infamously pushed him off the drinker when he had the audacity to climb up there one day....



Goodness gracious, that was a whole year and 4 months ago!

Not Quite Yet.

Bai Yun is playing hard-to-get.



Shortly after that video was captured, Gao Gao tried his pole-dance maneuver, and now he's in the midst of the "I'll turn my back on you and sulk" maneuver.

Stay tuned, and thanks to Doxiemom for the video.

Bungle In The Jungle Imminent

Or so it seems.

At the San Diego Zoo, Bai Yun is pacing, and Gao Gao keeps sniffing at the howdy gate. See, the big Stud Muffin (tm) knows there's a soon-to-be-ready female nearby, and he doesn't want to miss his opportunity. The two bears can see each other, but a grating still separates them.

This morning, the live cam showed a couple of apparent zoo employees with clipboards standing on the walkway, observing the action. After the zoo opened, apparent members of the public were seen also on the walkway, so evidently it's not time quite yet, because when it IS time, they will clear the public out of the exhibit, then open the grating, and if all goes well, there will be a new cub come August.

She Always Looks So Sweet And Innocent.

But... last Sunday, apparently somebody did not close a gate properly, and somebody got an armful of bear teeth. Big mama bear Bai Yun's teeth, to be exact.

Having recently weaned her last cub, she may be going into heat pretty soon, and if she's anything like humans . . . well, I've been known to bite people too.

UPDATE: The latest reports (or rumors) are saying that the person was bit in the leg, not the arm, and rather badly injured. CAL/OSHA is investigating, but has no jurisdiction over how the zoo actually treats the animals.

Back To Business As Usual

Bear business, that is.

The little guy (Yun Zi at San Diego) isn't so little anymore; he's now 97 pounds, and in the past week, has crossed a very important milestone.

He is now completely weaned, completely separated from his mother, and on his own. He seems to be handling it pretty well.

I do believe this is his favorite new sleeping perch:

And when he's not snoozing, he's checking out his territory:

Less than 6 weeks until the next Panda Convention, when we all get to ooh and aah at the little grown-up bear.

Hot Diggety Dang.

The world can officially come to an end now.

Why? Because I knew an obscure factoid that Jeff . . . didn't.

You see, Jeff's brain is one of the world's greatest repositories of obscure (and useless) factoids, most of which nobody else seems to know.

Today, at coffee, I happened to mention that the reason why the unrelated species of giant panda and red panda both have 'panda' in their name is because 'panda' means 'bamboo eater.'

I did not know that, said Jeff.

Also in the course of conversation, he mentioned that giant pandas are anomalous in that they have the digestive tract of a carnivore, but they are vegetarians.

I knew that. But neither of us knew why such an adaptation has taken place in the species. Perhaps no one knows.

And all of this and 50 cents will get you tomorrow's newspaper.

Sleeping Bear

He looks so innocent, doesn't he? But he apparently redecorated his enclosure early the other morning, without permission....

Did I mention the 2nd annual Panda Convention is coming up at the end of March??

UPDATE: Wakey-wakey?

Hmm... guess not.

Gao Gao Chow Chow Down Down

Gao Gao, AKA the Stud Muffin,* AKA the bamboo-eating machine, looking like a big stuffy-toy.



*Stud Muffin, because he is the ONLY male panda in the United States to have fathered cubs the way nature intended, not once, but 4 times so far.

Mud-Wrestling In San Diego

Betcha Thought I'd Forgotten.

This is especially for you, Mister Bum.

From the Pandacam yesterday:



ETA: Bum, it's for you because you so often razz me about the excessive bearish content of my blog posts.... That is the "little" cub climbing on top of his mama. I believe he is now over 70 pounds. She will probably wean him fairly soon, and then "kick him out," as Kay the panda narrator called it.

Fluffy Feet

I didn't know until I watched a fairly-recent TV program on pandas that they actually have fur on the bottoms of their feet. Apparently this makes it more comfortable to walk around in the snow.

One of the panda fans, a lady known only as Rita Petita (yes, I do know her real name; no, I'm not going to tell you) has posted one of the cutest pictures EVER of Little Prince Fluffy-Butt (and fluffy-paws) recently on her Flickr site. Her pictures are all copyrighted, and I am doing her the courtesy of not getting around that by grabbing a full screen-cap, but I will send you to see this picture for yourself.

I did, however, make a screen cap of just one of his fuzzy paws, to whet your appetite....



As an aside, I met Rita Petita at the recent event at the San Diego Zoo. She was packing some serious photographic hardware, and I remarked to her that now I could see why she's able to get such great close-up shots. She smiled and said yes, the pandas have become a very expensive hobby for her. (Those great big lenses are EXPENSIVE.)

Bears. We've Got Bears.

Baby bear is now a year old and weighs 53 pounds. And he's STILL cute as a button!



Mama's on a mission, I think....



Peek-a-boo. Literally.



Precious Zhen Zhen (who is leaving for China momentarily with her big sister Su Lin) naps up against her water fountain. She learned this trick from mama Bai Yun.



These pictures are all from Friday. More to come, I'm sure....

Pandamonium.

The last event of the Black and White Overnight was that they put US happy campers on the Pandacam. Really. Honest.

Can You Believe...

... His Chubbiness, Prince Fluffy-Butt, will be a whole year old next week.

This Is MUCH Too Cute Not To Share.

There is no indication of what zoo, or what bear this is... but this panda tries to climb the enclosure wall to greet some delighted visitors.



(Hat tip: Velia, via Facebook)

UPDATE: Velia contacted the person who posted the video to Youtube, and they replied that the video was shot at the zoo in Chongqing, China.