Hey everyone, we’ve got a quick Pope panda update for you via the National Zoo: the cub is now “2.95 pounds of adorable!”
The Zoo released a short video of of the cub from his latest exam. The Zoo says the cub is “now larger than both his siblings were at the same age,” and is now 31 centimeters long from head to tail.
But more importantly: “He is able to push himself up on his 10 centimeter-long front legs and sometimes scoots around the den.” Yep, that sounds like a healthy panda cub to us.
The cub still won’t open his eyes for a few more weeks, and still doesn’t have a name, but for the time being we’re going to call him Pope Frank, because ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Keepers were able to weigh the panda cub yesterday and he’s 2.95 pounds of adorable! The 4.5 week-old cub is now larger than both his siblings were at the same age. Bao Bao was about 2 pounds and Tai Shan was 2.6 pounds. He had a veterinary exam Sept. 17, and he’s 31 centimeters long from his head to the tip of his tail. He is able to push himself up on his 10 centimeter-long front legs and sometimes scoots around the den. He’s not walking yet, though. But, he can hear now! Keepers noticed that he reacted to the noise of a door opening on Saturday. His eyes won’t open for another few weeks. #PandaStory
Posted by Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute on Tuesday, September 22, 2015
