Papa Shi Shi	Baby Panda!	Mama Bai Yun
	On August 21, 1999, Hua Mei, the first baby panda to be born in the western hemisphere since 1990, was born at the San Diego Zoo. The parents are on loan to the San Diego Zoo from the Chinese government. The public was able to watch Hua Mei's development over the internet on the Zoo's Pandacam.

August 21, 1999: Hua Mei is born at 11:40 am. Her mother is Bai Yun (which means "White Cloud" in Chinese), who had been artificially inseminated from the father, Shi Shi ("Rock"). You can see Hua Mei's hind legs poking out from under Bai Yun's arm. [Click on the pictures for more images]

August 25, 1999 (4 days old): The first good view of Hua Mei, who looks more like a large mouse than a panda. Keepers estimate that she weighs between 4 and 5 ounces. Bai Yun weighs 218 pounds. Following Chinese tradition, Hua Mei will not officially be given her name until she is one hundred days old.

September 4, 1999 (14 days) Hua Mei gets her first checkup. The distinctive panda coloring is starting to appear, but she still fits in the veterinarian's hand, weighing only 12.5 ounces (less than one pound). Her claws will later be used for climbing trees.

September 21, 1999 (1 month) More like a panda, and more than a handful. Hua Mei gets her third checkup and weighs 2.3 pounds. She's gaining about two ounces a day. She's learned roll onto her belly.

October 6, 1999 (1 month, 15 days) A great big furry bowl of baby panda. Hua Mei weighs 4.75 pounds, is 15.2 inches long, and her eyes are starting to open. She's also starting to be able to move herself around, but she's still too young to walk.

October 13, 1999 (1 month 22 days) A real live teddy bear, Hua Mei weighs 5.75 pounds and is 16 inches long with a 14 inch waist. She can completely roll over by herself.

October 20, 1999 (almost 2 months) Hua Mei can now lift her head. She weighs 7 pounds and is 18 inches long with a 17 inch waist.

October 27, 1999 (2 months, 6 days) Hua Mei moves around a lot. She weighs over 7 pounds and is 22 inches long. Bai Yun is very attentive but now feels comfortable leaving her alone in the birthing den for longer periods of time

November 3, 1999 (2 months, 13 days) Hua Mei can lift herself up on her front legs and soon sits up for the first time. She weighs over 8 pounds and is 22 inches long.

November 23, 1999 (3 months, 2 days) Hua Mei's teeth are starting to show, and she's making more panda sounds. She can crawl, but hasn't been able to stand on all four legs yet. She weighs 10.7 pounds and is over 26 inches long.

November 30, 1999 (3 months, 9 days) Hua Mei turns 100 days old and is officially given her name which had been a carefully kept secret. It means "China USA" to symbolize the value of the two nations' cooperative efforts in helping these extremely endangered animals. It also translates as "Magnificent Beautiful." A special ceremony was held on December 1 which was attended by An Wenbin, Consul General of the People's Republic of China. Meanwhile, Hua Mei has tried to take her first steps.

December 8, 1999 (3 months, 17 days) "Say Ahhh." Hua Mei gets regular checkups and medical attention. She weighs over 12 pounds and is frequently seen playing with Bai Yun.

December 15, 1999 (3 months, 24 days) Hua Mei continues to grow and has been gaining over half a pound each week.

December 29, 1999 (4 months, 8 days) Hua Mei has started walking and exploring the area right outside the birthing den. Bai Yun has begun carrying her to other areas of the panda exhibit. She weighs 16 pounds and is over 2 feet long.

January 5, 2000 (4 months, 16 days) Hua Mei is getting so big, it's becoming a little hard to carry her to her checkups (compare this picture with September 4). She goes outside the birthing den all by herself.

January 12, 2000 (4 months, 23 days) Hua Mei pretends to chew on bamboo like she's seen her mother do, but she's still to little for solid food.

January 14, 2000 (4 months, 25 days) Hua Mei poses for a family photo with proud mama, Bai Yun (compare this picture with August 21). She went to the outdoor area of the panda exhibit for the first time today. She found her way there from the birthing den all by herself, looking for Bai Yun who was sleeping there.

January 19, 2000 (almost 5 months) Hua Mei spends a lot of time outdoors exploring, napping, playing, and trying to climb the trees. But she still stays close to Bai Yun. She has grown 15 teeth, weighs 19 pounds and is 35 inches long.

January 26, 2000 (5 months, 5 days) Hua Mei continues to enjoy the outdoors and follows Bai Yun around. During her checkup, the keepers gave her a burlap sack to play with. She weighs over 20 pounds.

February 11, 2000 (5 months, 21 days) Hua Mei goes on exhibit, and visitors can see her in person instead of just on the Pandacam. She likes to climb on the logs and is so active that the veterinarians find it hard to examine her.

February 23, 2000 (6 months, 2 days) Hua Mei likes to sleep in some branches about 8 feet above the ground, but, by the beginning of March, she's been seen climbing to over twice that height.

March 10, 2000 (6 months, 17 days) The previous evening, Hua Mei decided to spend the night sleeping outside on a branch for the first time, even after Bai Yun went inside. Bai Yun came back out and tried to get Hua Mei to climb down, but the baby panda refused. So Bai Yun spent the night outside with her.

April 13, 2000 (7 months, 23 days) Hua Mei spends so much time up in the trees, that this is the first chance in weeks that the veterinarians have had to give her a checkup. She weighs 33.7 pounds.

May 14, 2000 (8 months, 23 days) Hua Mei weighs 36.3 pounds and has started to eat solid food, but she still mostly nurses from Bai Yun. She has also started to scent mark the area like a grownup panda.

August 15, 2000 (11 months, 25 days) Hua Mei eats some bamboo for breakfast. She weighs almost 60 pounds, is 30 inches long, and spends most of her time up in the trees. The San Diego Zoo is busy planning special events to celebrate her upcoming birthday.

August 21, 2000 (1 year old) Happy birthday Hua Mei! She's getting to be a big girl (compare this with Sept 4 and Jan 5). Keepers give her a birthday cake made out of ice with vegetables frozen inside it. Visitors to the San Diego Zoo sign a big birthday card, while children from all over have been sending in their own birthday cards. Hua Mei celebrates by playing in a tree with Bai Yun.

February 22, 2001 (1 year, 6 months, 1 day) o/~ Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset o/~ Hua Mei and Bai Yun spend their last day together because Hua Mei is now old enough to live alone like adult pandas do. Tomorrow, she will be placed in her own exhibit area, and Bai Yun will be ready to try to have another baby.

August 21, 2001 (2 years old) Hua Mei celebrates her second birthday with a cake made out of ice, bamboo, and carrots starting with a big number two made out of ice. She weighs almost 150 pounds, which is still 70 pounds less than Bai Yun, and eats 15 pounds of bamboo each day.

July 9, 2002 (2 years, 10 months, 18 days) Hua Mei yawns as she rests comfortably in a tree.

July 10, 2002 (2 years, 10 months, 19 days) Hua Mei plays in artificial snow made from eighteen tons of crushed ice. The zoo believes in enriching the animals' lives by varying their environments and thinking up new activities for them.

August 21, 2002 (3 years old) Hua Mei celebrates another birthday with three bamboo candles on a cake made out of vegetables and ice. The San Diego Zoo's original twelve year agreement with the Chinese government said that any babies born to Bai Yun and Shi Shi would be returned to China on their third birthday. But the Chinese have not yet asked for custody.

More About Pandas Pandas are first mentioned in Chinese books written 2,500 years ago, but they weren't seen by a European until 1869. In 1936, Su-Lin at the Chicago Zoo was the first living panda to be brought out of China. The panda's full name is Giant Panda. Their scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca. Pandas are related to bears, but they are classified in their own group. There used to be some confusion about how to classify pandas because they have some features in common with a completely different animal called a Red Panda (also called a Lesser Panda) which is related to the raccoons. Red pandas were discovered by Europeans 48 years before the Giant panda. The word "panda" comes from the Nepalese name for the red panda, nigalya ponya, which means "bamboo eater." Pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore (meat eater), but they eat a mostly vegetarian diet. Pandas' primary food is bamboo, but since their digestive systems can absorb only a little of the nutrition, they have to eat over 30 pounds a day. Pandas like the taste of young bamboo sprouts which have even less nutrition. If they eat only these, they must eat over 80 pounds a day. Pandas spend 16-24 hours a day eating and the remainder resting. Pandas eat sitting up and have a sixth finger on their front paws that they use as a thumb for holding food. Pandas make a sound like a sheep bleating, but they can make 11 different sounds for different situations. The purpose of the pandas' black eye patches may be to make their eyes look bigger and scarier to other animals. Pandas' fur is slightly oily to make it waterproof. Each panda lives alone. Male and female pandas get together only for mating and then separate after a day or two. Pandas keep track of other pandas by scent marking trees. If a female panda gives birth to two babies, she is able to take care of only one of them. Adult pandas are 5-6 feet long and weigh 165-242 pounds. Pandas live for about thirty years in captivity. Their only natural enemies are humans. Pandas are very endangered because of the destruction of their environment and hunting by poachers for their fur. For a long time, it was believed that there were fewer than 1000 pandas in the world, but a new survey in 2004 indicated that there may be as many as 1600. Only about 16 of these are outside China. Pandas are used as the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund.

October 18, 1995 (1 month, 18 days old): A veterinarian bottle-feeds a baby panda inside an incubator at the Beijing Zoo because its mother, Yong Yong, has been unable to nurse it. This baby and its twin have passed the critical survival period and are expected to live by themselves in six months. Yong Yong has given birth five times to seven cubs, all of which have survived.

April 12, 1996 (5 months old): Niuniu is weighed in a basket by a keeper at the Beijing Zoo. He is the fifteenth panda to be born at the zoo and now weighs 30 pounds. He weighed 4.9 ounces at birth.

August 19, 1999 (1 day old): Triplets were born at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Unfortunately, the littlest one in the middle died two days later. Twins are not uncommon, but triplets are very rare.

April 6, 2000 (8 months, 3 days): QingQing plays in a basket after being given its name which means "Celebration" in Chinese. The 39 pound baby lives at the Chongqing Zoo in China, about 1000 miles southwest of Beijing.

August 22, 2000 (4 days old): New mama Qing Qing holds her pink baby to her chest at the Chengdu Zoo in China's Sichuan province. This is Qing Qing's eleventh baby - more that any other panda has had - and all of them are still alive.

December 22, 2000 (3 month, 10 days): The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in the Sichuan province of China has twin boy pandas named Chenggong and Chengji and twin girl pandas named Bingdian and Bingxin who are all one hundred days old today.

August 2, 2001: Three baby pandas play at the Chengdu Research Base. Thirteen of the female pandas at the base are currently pregnant as part of the base's work to save the pandas from going extinct.

August 2, 2001 (2 weeks old): Shen-shen sleeps inside an incubator at the Chengdu Research Base. Its mother was impregnated by artificial insemination.

August 20, 2001: A newborn panda is held by a staff member at the Chengdu Research Base. It's one of a pair of twins.

September 18, 2001: A baby panda is bottle fed milk at the Chengdu Research Base. The number of pandas born at the base has increased this fall.

September 25, 2001: New mama Qingqing holds her baby in her mouth. It weighs 3.75 ounces (105 grams). Qingqing is 17 years old and has had eight babies in Chengdu.

March 1, 2002 (2 months, 12 days): People at Japan's Adventure World Zoo in Shirahama get their first look at Yuhin, who was born on December 17, and its watchful mother Meimei. Yuhin weighs 12.8 pounds and is 24 inches long.

March 20, 2002 (6 months old): Quinghe walks near her mother at the Giant Panda Breeding Base in Chengdu. She's one of twelve babies born to her mother since 1989.

August 28, 2002 (1 day old): Twelve year old Ya Ya carries one of her new babies in her mouth after giving birth to twins. So far, these are the sixth and seventh baby pandas to be born this year at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center.

September 3, 2002: The First International Panda Festival is held in Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, China. Two young pandas are brought in by security guards for the opening ceremony. 850 of the world's 1000 remaining pandas are located in Sichuan, and the local government is hoping to attract tourists by promoting the region as the "Home Town of Pandas."

September 6, 2002 (16 days old): "Little Bing" - named after its mother, Bing Bing - drinks milk at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Base in Sichuan, China. After feeding, the researcher helps it to burp. "Little Bing" won't be given a real name until it is 100 days old.

September 6, 2002 (Less than 1 day old): "Little Jiao" - named after its mother, Jiao Jiao - weighs 6.4 ounces and is the fifth panda to be born at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Base so far this year. Twelve pandas were born in China during 2002. 110 pandas live in captivity throughout the world, and less than 1000 live in the wild. Chinese scientists are trying to use cloning technology to help save these highly endangered animals.

September 6, 2002: Two panda babies play together at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Base. Before 1987, the Base was part of the Chengdu Zoo in the Western Chinese region of Sichuan. Since 1980, pandas at both places have given birth to a total of seventy-seven babies.

September 7, 2002: One of the benefactors of the Wolong Nature Reserve Panda Base in Sichuan is allowed to hold a baby panda as a thank you for his sponsorship. The base gets some of its much needed money from foreign donations and from renting pandas to zoos around the world.

September 7, 2002: A baby panda cuddles with its momma at the Wolong Panda research center in Sichuan, China. A panda pregnancy can last 70-180 days. The destruction of their environment, hunting by humans, and their low birth rate make things look bleak for the future of pandas.

September 7, 2002: A veterinarian carefully cleans a baby panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve Panda Base. Saving the pandas also makes good economic sense because they bring a lot of money to the region by attracting tourists.

December 16, 2002 (11 months 29 days): Tomorrow, Yuhin celebrates his first birthday at the Adventure World Zoo in Shirahama, Japan by playing on the grass. He didn't show much interest in the presents of apples and a snowman that the keepers gave to him.

Panda Websites The Bear Den Giant Panda Info at the Atlanta Zoo Giant Panda Quiz Panda Folklore: How the Pandas Got Their Color Panda Central at the San Diego Zoo PBS Nature: The Panda Baby WWF Flagship Species: Giant Panda References: Poglayen-Neuwall, Ivo. Lesser Pandas. In Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals, edited by Sybil P. Parker. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3:469-471, 1990. Schaller, George B. Giant Pandas. In Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals, edited by Sybil P. Parker. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3:472-476, 1990. Zoological Society of San Diego. Panda Central. San Diego Zoo, 2000. <http://sandiegozoo.org/special/pandas/> Photographs from the Associated Press Photo Archive.

Robert Delaney (8/3/05) robert.delaney@liu.edu
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