Advertisement

Your morning adorable: Zoo Atlanta’s giant panda cub has a checkup

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The giant panda cub born last month at Zoo Atlanta continues to grow at a healthy rate, weighing 2.2 pounds and measuring almost 14 inches from nose tip to tail tip during a veterinary examination last week. The cub, a male, is the third offspring for mother Lun Lun and father Yang Yang and the only giant panda born in an American zoo this year. He hasn’t yet been given a name.

The cub recently began to crawl, moving around ‘like a little worm,’ Joseph T. Svoke, a carnivore keeper at Zoo Atlanta, noted earlier this week. (Keepers post short updates about the cub’s progress on the zoo’s website just about every day, and panda fans can also tune in to the zoo’s online panda cam on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.)

Advertisement

Mostly, of course, the little guy spends his time eating and sleeping, as all babies should. ‘His abdomen’s really round and full and that’s what we really like in a baby,’ Dr. Hayley Murphy, director of veterinary services at the zoo, told the Associated Press last week. ‘That just tells us he’s eating well and his abdomen’s full of milk.’

Zoo staffers expect the cub to begin opening his eyes soon. He won’t be on display to the public until he’s walking on his own, a milestone giant pandas typically reach when they’re about 4 months old.

After the jump, see more photos of the cub during his exam last week!

RELATED PANDA STORIES:

-- Lindsay Barnett

Advertisement