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Pandamania sweeps America
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GIANT pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian made their much-heralded debut at the National Zoo in Washington on Wednesday in a media fanfare likely to rival the inauguration of President-elect George W Bush on January 20.
Chomping on bamboo and special brick-red, high-fibre cookies, the roly-poly bears romped in their new enclosure in front of throngs of jostling photographers and reporters who captured their every bound, leap and rip of a bamboo stalk.
“Wow, this is exciting,” said National Zoo Director Lucy Spelman, as she introduced the pandas, who have been in quarantine since their arrival from China on December 6. The pandas displayed their voracious appetites and after chomping everything in sight — they eat about 18kg of bamboo a day each — they settled down to a mid-morning nap in the cold weather they prefer.
“This is Panda premier day,” said Lawrence Small, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
During their time in quarantine, Spelman said the bears had settled well into their new enclosure which was renovated for US$1.8 million and includes waterfalls and custom art work.
“The pandas have done extremely well during quarantine. They essentially eat everything in sight, they are very people-oriented and very food-motivated,” said Spelman.
Just like their predecessors, the late Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, the new pandas have been greeted by a fanfare. A US survey indicates the couple are more popular than the Bushes.
Their debut was recorded live on all the major networks and the Washington Post had an eight-page supplement on the pandas on Wednesday, providing a detailed map of their enclosure and copious minutiae on their diet and habits.
Using banner headline graphics such as “pandamonium” and “pandamania”, television presenters gave hourly updates on the progress of the cuddly bears, who were visited last weekend by President Clinton and his family.
The pandas' every move will be documented by 20 video cameras trained on them all the time and a World Wide Web “panda cam” has also been installed.
People can get more information about the giant pandas on the zoo's panda website at http://pandas.si.edu.
The couple will not reach sexual maturity for three or four years, but the zoo is hoping they will try to mate.(SD-Agencies)
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