Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Recently, I've scoured the internet looking for pictures of panda cubs. Other people might enjoy the fruits of my research:

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/MeetPandas/pandacubgallery/

(Be sure to click on "next photo," and don't miss 10 and 11!)

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/PandaFacts/cubgrowth.cfm

Many of these pictures are collected in an album at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/index.html

And:

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/news/panda_news.html

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/exhibits/panda/panda.htm

(The sixth-to-last picture on that page is a bit unnerving; I believe the scientist is just getting stem cells from the panda's umbilical cord. Notice how the mommy pandas sometimes hold newborns in their mouths, so that only their legs and tails poke out!)

The newborns are not cute — they look like fetuses or rodents — but between the ages of five weeks and five months pandas are too adorable for words (but slightly melancholy-looking too — like little pierrots).

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