Yesterday (2012 July 5th), Shin-Shin, the female Giant Panda at Tokyo’s 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) gave birth to a baby.
This is the first time that a panda has been born in a zoo in Japan in twenty-four years.
That means that the last time a panda was born here was in 1988…two years before I came to Japan.
So, this is big news and Ueno Zoo will surely be full of visitors hoping to see the baby panda.
Edited on 2012 July 12: It was announced that the newborn baby panda died of pneumonia yesterday.
So sad!
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Never went to a zoo in Japan during my time there. Hm.
Is it that pandas don’t often breed in captivity, or they just haven’t been successful since 1988?
You’ve never been to a zoo here? That’s too bad … there are so many nice ones!
And pandas are supposedly notoriously difficult to breed .
please show pics of the baby, when available. thanx.
Actually I wanted to put a photo of the baay panda but the zoo’s website doesn’t have one, yet.
Here a picture of the baby panda (which, by the way,it was announced is a “boy”) from the Ueno Zoo website:
We’ve heard the controversy about the name for the panda.
Yeah, Tokyo’s governor suggested naming the baby panda after the Japanese name for disputed territory between Japan and China.
Reblogged this on Okonomibloggy.
Thank you!
I just edited this post above with the news that the baby panda died yesterday. It’s too bad!