Results tagged “pandas>”

Bai Yun, the San Diego Zoo's female panda, just thinks she's soooooo great, doesn't she. She's been popping out babies left and right over the last few years, already having had four to our own Mei Xiang's one, and then just to pour salt in the wound, she had to go and have a fifth one yesterday. Well la-di-dah, San Diego. Aren't you friggin' special.

The National Zoo once again rolled out the fanfare for superstar giant panda Tai Shan this morning, as D.C.'s favorite ball of fur (and stick of butter) turned 4. Now a teenager in "bear years," the panda dug into a three-tiered, frozen "cake" made out of water, beet juice, bamboo and fruit that was prepared by Zoo staff. Crowds of onlookers were on hand early this morning to watch the panda dig in to his treat and wish him a happy birthday.

Man, the Washington Post really knows how to twist the knife while the wound is still fresh. Just a day after we all learned that the National Zoo's female adult panda, Mei Xiang, wasn't pregnant after all, Postie Michael E. Ruane files a story reminding us that Tai Shan, our beloved stick o' butter who's now all grown up, will eventually be sent back to China. Oh, and that day could come sooner than you think. Thanks, man. You also had something to tell us about Santa Claus, right?

Oh, Mei Xiang, you absolute heartbreaker. Staff at Smithsonian's National Zoo confirmed late yesterday their adult female giant panda is in fact not pregnant, and was instead experiencing another one of her pseudopregnancies. This also happened last summer. And the summer before that.

We got pretty excited when we noticed the National Zoo had added some video to the DCist Videos pool titled "Giant panda breeding season starts early at National Zoo." Had the Zoo just hand delivered us footage of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, you know, doin' it? Sadly, the closest they get is just after the 1 minute mark, when the two adult pandas kind of paw at each other a little. After that, the video tragicially cuts away without showing any acción. We suppose that since Mei had to be quickly artificially inseminated because "competent mating did not occur," that could mean that there was simply no hot panda love footage available. Still, we're disappointed.

Owing to "this year's unusually early onset of reproductive activity," the District's two beloved giant pandas were at it again this week. Zoo officials recently noticed that Mei Xiang -- who usually experiences her prime ovulation (and hence, the one really good shot she has at conceiving every year) in March or April -- had increased levels of hormones in her urine. That, combined with "distinctive vocalizations" and other such flirtatious behavior, led experts to initiate the complicated business of panda mating.

For the non FONZ members of the reading audience, Tian Tian is the adult male giant panda at the National Zoo. That is to say, he's the Butter Daddy. He and Mei Xiang are to thank for bringing that lovable little fella we call Butterstick into the world. Of course, as is custom for giant pandas, there isn't a relationship between the father and his offspring (beyond the occasional glimpse through the fence; they live in separate but adjacent pens as male pandas don't play a role in raising offspring). And today is his birthday! A virgo like myself (that might explain all those independent tendencies), today marks his 11th glorious year on the planet. Does anybody know anything about panda years? Are they like dog years?

Good morning, Washington. Think good thoughts for Tian Tian, the National Zoo's male giant panda and the biological father of Tai Shan/Butterstick. Tian Tian underwent eye surgery yesterday to remove inflamed tissue from one of his third eyelids. He's expected to make a full recovery, but in the meantime he'll have to live with the shame of being the one to expose this whole pandas having third eyelids monstrosity. DCist has always held a firm editorial stand that pandas are adorable, but after learning this fact we may have to convene our board to reconsider.

When the District's resident panda cub was born two years ago, zoo officials inadvertently compared the tiny, hairless creature to a stick of butter. Since then, Tai Shan has always been Butterstick to those who love him the most.

There's a new tool combating pandas' frankly pathetic interest in species propagation: panda porn. (Link is SFW) Zoo officials in China are using video of pandas mating to induce the animals to get it on during their shockingly short (24-48 hours) mating season. Above and beyond any mere Panda Cam, these flicks include loud audio and plenty of adult situations. The result has been many successful pregnancies. We can only hope this baby boom...

Washington's most beloved toddler won't be sent to an unfamiliar country to participate in a forced breeding program. At least not yet. The irrepressibly cute Tai Shan, who turns two on July 2, has been given a reprieve by the Chinese government and will be staying at the National Zoo, at least for a while. Though the cub is a natural-born citizen of the U.S., an agreement with China says that any offspring from...

If you're anything like us, you've been enjoying bimonthly "FONZ Flash" emails from the zoo ever since you coughed up the money for a one-year membership just to get primo Butterstick viewing tickets last summer. It's nice to hear about upcoming lectures, new exhibits and the comings-and-goings of the animals in the collection. But yesterday's newsletter contained some... disconcerting news (which we were shocked to find made the rounds last week — without spurring outrage)....

>> We realize it's been a while since we stirred the pot on Butterstick mania, but there's a new way to celebrate your love for all things panda. Keds has their own (surprisingly cute) panda shoes. No, they're not made of real pandas, but these canvas creations might be some comfort after Tai Shan is ripped from our grasp and shipped off to China this fall.

Sometimes at PotD, funny trumps all other considerations. When you add into that an appeal to the comic geek, a subtle self-portrait, and a ghostly image of a panda (you know how we love pandas here at DCist), you've got a winner. Flickr user JamesCalder narrowly beat out this great image of a modern store for lease in the amusing sign competition for today. EXIF data is here.

Welcome back from your holidays, DCist readers. We hope they were filled with turkey, or turducken, or whatever floats your boat. Around here, the long weekend seemed to be filled with totally awesome global warming. 65 degrees in November, anyone? Anyway, gloat over the Redskins' win as we ease you back into the working week with the news. Even More Reasons to Fear the Suburbs: Because, oh my lord, now they're ruining Christmas. The Post...

Pandas come in more flavors than just butter. Flickr user billadler took this great shot of one of the red pandas at the National Zoo's Asia Trail, which provides some real close up views of the animals. Have you stopped by the new exhibit to see them yourself? EXIF.

Okay, DCist readers, we give you the highly-anticipated and long-awaited winner of the First Annual DCist Halloween Costume Contest: Nacho Libre! Well done, sir. Nacho had a commanding lead from the start, and ended up with over 30% of the vote. Not terribly far behind Mr. Libre were the two adorable pandas from Georgetown with 25%, and Miss. E. Coli Spinach came in a respectable third, with 18% of the readership vote.

If you're a child of the District, it's a distinct possibility that dozens of trips to the National Zoo over the years formed very strong memories for you. There's the good old reptile house; the good old elephant house; and of course the good old pandas. Even a dozen or so years after my childhood, return trips offered up the same sort of feeling: not much is ever different at the zoo. Which is...

Because nothing says "fun times" like terrifying giant panda-costumed folks traveling in a motorcade and handing out single-use cameras across the metropolitan area, we just had to alert you folks to the zoo's newest promotional event.

Starting Friday, October 13th, in order to celebrate the grand opening of the Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat and Asia Trail, the fine folks at the Zoo and FONZ will be taking the panda show on the road.

Apparently, the 13th through the 15th, according to the press release sent our way, "two FONZ volunteers will don giant panda costumes and distribute Fujifilm QuickSnap cameras to 400 people at each of 12 locations throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area." Which -- do you really think these are "FONZ volunteers" so much as "people who probably for nefarious reasons owe FONZ a lot of money"? Because donning enormous panda costumes for fifteen hours doesn't sound so much like something people are scrambling to do. But maybe that's just us.

Additionally, three random people who show up to the locations will be receiving a ticket that entitles them to a VIP tour of the new trail, a digital camera and, best of all, a "private visit" with Butterstick and his folks. What do you think a "private visit" with a bunch of pandas entails? Cracking open a few cold ones and watching the game? Cuddling? Sitting around, staring blankly at each other, trying to think of clever things to say? The pressure!

In order to figure out where the panda van motorcade will be stopping around town, you can head over here, where somebody has painstakingly put together several rhyming clues as to where it will be each day. We're counting on our Flickrites to capture these special moments.

Tasteless-yet-totally-awesome graphic brought to you by the Photoshop skills of Tom Lee

We've known since before he was born that, like all panda cubs born in the U.S., eventually our beloved little Stick 'o Butta would have to return to China. But honestly, stories like this make us a little wary of letting the little guy go.

What a night, eh Washington? If you're like us, you were up late listening to Kojo and Jonetta break down the election results as they came in on WAMU. Our favorite moment of the evening came just before 10 p.m., when Mayor Williams told co-host Jonetta Rose Barras she was crazy to suggest that anyone believed he had waited too long to decide if he would seek a third term. For the record Jonetta —...

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on...

From ambassadors of China's goodwill to international webcam sensations, the pandas at the National Zoo are used to the white-hot spotlight of celebrity. But now, some in D.C. want to take that fame a step further and elevate them to the lofty heights of becoming the city's official symbol. Today's Christian Science Monitor reports (echoing very closely a March 15 article in the Washington Times that we somehow missed) that members of the D.C. City...

Our inbox runneth over here at Overheard in D.C. headquarters. Nice weather, busloads of tourists, and a plethora of outdoor events have all come together to give us some amusement for a Friday afternoon. Keep 'em coming to overheardindc (at) gmail (dot) com. Quote of the Week Museum of Natural History information desk: Two women: "Where here can we find the baby Panda?" Information Clerk: "You have to go to the zoo to see the...

The Butterstick juggernaut rolls on today, as NBC 4 fills a content gap with a story on how the little fellow, now eight months old, has switched from merely chewing on bamboo to actually swallowing the stuff (he also tries to get ahold of his mother's fruitsicles, which sounds dirty, but they're really just fruitsicles). And, of course, we swallow the stuff, happily clicking on the link and receiving as our reward images of the little devil, who remains dangerously cute.

Trust us, when we saw this WTOP story, the first thing we imagined was being given the chance to be the ones to help Butterstick down from trees and feed him his daily ration of whatever the heck it is he's eating these days (he hasn't really gotten to effectively chewing bamboo, after all).

Pardon us, but our fandom is showing. Ok, so it's showing a bit more then usual this week, but we have good reason. A savvy traveler picked up this issue of American Way magazine (check the seat pocket on your next American Airlines flight), which features an interview with local gal (and WB star) Lauren Graham. Graham, who plays the fast talking, quick witted Lorelai Gilmore on the WB's hit pop-culture gabfest the Gilmore Girls, talks about the District being a reprise reprieve from the flightier ways of Hollywood, and generally glows with happy things to say about her home town.

The National Zoo has made great strides in its animal care since 2000. Between that year and 2005, the Zoo lost red pandas to rat poison, zebras to starvation and hypothermia, an oryx from neglect after delivering a baby, and a handful of other animals from various seemingly preventable causes. Just last year, the Zoo lost a healthy camel and was forced to euthanize a giraffe after unsuccessful surgery to remove a tumor.

Isn't that a face just made for TV? Our local celebrity is going national with his own TV special. Animal Planet will air an hour long documentary about the nation's favorite panda cub this Saturday night at 8 p.m. The doc, creatively titled A Panda is Born!, will show the actual birth footage of panda cub Butterstick. Now, we love the little guy, but even we're not sure we need to see that. True Butterstick obsessives probably already have their DVR's set, though.

Yesterday a select group of National Zoo donors were given first crack at seeing the District's newest four-legged sensation, Butterstick (yes, officially he is called Tai Shan, but National Airport is also officially known as Reagan and we're not about to start calling it that). Parents and children took the opportunity to ohhh and ahhh their way past the undeniably cute panda cub and mother Mei Xiang, while those of us too cheap to donate money to the cause are left with little more than the voyeuristic Panda Cam.