[As for his diet,] he's solely consuming his mother's milk, ... We've already been giving him bamboo. It's very cute to watch him. He rehearses all the adult moves. He slouches back and holds the bamboo in his paws. He pulls the leaves through his mouth. He chews on them and he chews on the stalk. But he's not swallowing it. He's not eating it. We expect that milestone to occur sometime about a month from now. |
He is part of a major breeding program to maintain a healthy population of this endangered species in captivity. At 2 years of age, decisions will be made on where he should go to benefit the breeding population. |
He noticed his father over the weekend. |
He spends all his day in a tree. He comes down for short periods to play and nurse. |
He's a climbing fiend. He's climbing all over the rocks, or he's climbing on his mother. And when he's not climbing on her, he's chewing on her. . . . She lets him treat her like a giant chew toy. |
He's a play toy for her. |
He's just a fantastic little bear. He's climbing all over his cage. |
He's showing us each day that he's more and more of a little bear cub. |
His little eyes are open, and he can see what's going on, |
I don't even want to think about it. |
I'm much more concerned about visitors, |
I'm much more concerned about visitors. The animals are seeking cool places and are inactive. The visitors are out here walking around in this heat. So we really are more concerned about them and want them to be very careful about taking time to cool off. |
Pandas do communicate a lot of information by scent marking and leaving their scent on an object. |
Right now, I'm paying overtime because he's not on our schedule. On Saturday, a keeper didn't leave until 9:30 p.m. because he didn't come down (from the tree) until 8:30 p.m. |
Some days he gets up really early, around four or five in the morning, and starts playing like crazy, climbing on his mother, climbing on the rocks, |