the great big panda post
The Zoo allows about 50 people into the Panda House at a time, for a ten-minute viewing. The viewings start at 11:00 am, and my ticket was for 11:10. If Mei Xiang's in the den, the keepers won't go near Tai Shan, and since the pandas might be sleeping or hiding, the Zoo doesn't guarantee a sighting even if you have a ticket. However, in the mornings they wake up Mei and lure her outside with a fruitsicle, and while she's occupied they bring Tai out so everyone can see him.
When I got inside the Panda House, Mei was already outside, and Tai was in the den. I could tell the instant he peeked around the corner because every single person in the room lost the ability to speak English and just started cooing.
There were two keepers playing with him, trying to distract him with bamboo and toys. He was more interested in playing with the keepers though, and kept chasing them around. For a five-month-old, he's still pretty uncoordinated. He can't walk a straight line, and when he was running after the keepers, he bounced. Teh cute, it is strong with this one.
(I apologize for the pictures - my camera wouldn't focus beyond the glass. And after a while, I had to remind myself to remove the camera from my face and actually watch him.)
Tai trying to get the keeper to play with him by climbing her leg.
After about five minutes one of the keepers picked Tai up and carried him into the other room so that the rest of the crowd could get a good look. Then she set him down on the rocks and left the room. Tai walked around on the rocks a bit, but when he seemed to realize that he was alone, he hopped down and toddled his way back to the den. At this point our ten minutes were up and we were being shooed out.
Panda Cam Central.
Of course it all went very fast. When I first saw him it was like the first time I saw Saturn through a telescope - I'd seen pictures, and I knew what to expect, but there was still this sense of, "He's real! He really exists!" Followed by a lot of incoherent squeeing. (Admittedly I didn't squee very much over Saturn, but it's still a nice-looking planet. Just not very fuzzy.)
And to make up for the blurry pictures of Tai, some pictures of his parents that I took last spring when I was at the zoo to see the cheetah cubs.
The first two pictures are Mei Xiang:
Mei Xiang with Tian Tian sneaking up behind her.
Tian gets some bamboo too.
The way I usually tell them apart in pictures is to look at their eyes. Tian's black spots are narrower than Mei's.
So, yes. Pandas. They're quite adorable.