Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Post-Shutdown Palate Cleanser: Panda Cam Is Back!

The panda cub now weighs 5 pounds. This photo was taken Tuesday.
Courtney Janney
/
Smithsonian's National Zoo
The panda cub now weighs 5 pounds. This photo was taken Tuesday.

If the ugliness in Washington left a bad taste in your mouth, we have the perfect palate cleanser.

The panda cam at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, which was shutdown along with the federal government, is back online. It means you can once again ogle the now eight-week-old cub and her mother, Mei Xiang.

The zoo writes:

"Since the panda cams went dark, the cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones. She weighs 5 pounds (2.557 kilograms), up from 3.07 pounds (1.39 kilograms) at her veterinary exam Sept. 26. She also has partially opened her eyes. Keepers noticed that her right eye had started to open Oct. 4. By Oct. 11 both her eyes had partially opened. Her ears are also fully open and she now reacts to the noises she hears in the panda house."

The cam is here. We took a look a little while ago and the cub — which will not be named until it is 100 days old — was sleeping.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.