Bai Yun ("White Cloud") is not a panda cub, and hasn't been a cub for many years. Born in China in 1991, she has been at the San Diego Zoo since 1996. She has given birth to 5 cubs since 1999:
Hua Mei (f),
Mei Sheng (m),
Su Lin (f),
Zhen Zhen (m), and
Yun Zi (m). Nevertheless, we saw her behaving like a frisky young cub when we visited the zoo last month.
When we first saw Bai Yun in 2006, her second daughter, Su Lin, was about six months old. Su Lin spent most of her time in a tree, sleeping, while Bai Yun spent most of her time sleeping on top of their outdoor den. All we could see of Bai at that time was her generous ("white cloud") backside. Su Lin's papa, Gao Gao, provided the only active entertainment that day.
I was surprised, therefore, to find her extremely playful this time. The zoo's play-by-play announcer said he had never seen her so lively before.
My intrepid photographer was fortunate enough to get many shots of Bai playing with a large disc in her pond. It turned out she was trying to get it out of her pond, and, when she succeeded, she didn't stop to rest. Instead, she began to climb her tree, offering the crowd some more photo opportunities! It was wonderful.
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© Richard Schear, March, 2012
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Posted for Misty Dawn's
Camera Critters meme.
Thanks, Misty!
