Did you know that there are 4 zoos in the U.S. that have Giant Pandas you can visit? And while you can visit the Pandas at all these Zoos, you can also visit them right from your home since they all have Panda Cams so you can watch the Pandas on your own computer!

The first is in Washington, D. C. at the National Zoo , the second is at the San Diego Zoo, the third is at the Atlanta Zoo , and the last is the Memphis Zoo (click here to see their Panda Cam).

I loved visiting the Giant Pandas in Washington, D. C. I saw the mommy and the baby Pandas – and the baby was hiding up in a tree. I got a really, really cool Panda lunch box with my veggie burger – and I love it.

Pandas are very important in my life, so I wrote this poem about them.

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Pandas

Pandas are precious and nice

They eat no meat

Except for some mice

They do not sleep

They only snooze

They mostly eat different types of bamboos
- the tallest grass in the world

I just finished my new Pandas are Precious store, and it has a lot of products that mainly have my picture of a baby Giant Panda holding a red umbrella. I had fun choosing the products. My favorite is the BBQ apron (which actually has a picture of the baby Panda holding a piece of bamboo). I think it will be fun to cook with my Mommy in my new BBQ apron.

I was very sad when my Dad read me this about the Panda baby that they were expecting in Memphis:

“No baby panda for Ya Ya

By Trey Heath, June 14, 2007

After days of urine tests, ultrasounds and dwindling hope, Memphis Zoo officials confirmed Wednesday that giant panda Ya Ya is no longer pregnant.

“At this point we are calling it a miscarriage,” said Matt Thompson, curator of mammals

“Through the ultrasound you could still see the embryonic sack, but the walls were thinner and were starting to collapse in on themselves and that is the beginning of a miscarriage. There was also still no development in the sack itself.”

Ya Ya was artificially inseminated in January after she and male panda Le Le failed to mate.
Zoo officials became suspicious that the pregnancy could be in danger last week after Ya Ya’s progesterone level began dropping to normal levels. Doctors never did find a heartbeat of the fetus during ultrasounds.

“The doctor confirmed it via ultrasound but we have been following her hormone levels through urine tests. They basically returned back to normal 10 days ago.”

Ya Ya’s failed pregnancy is perfectly natural for a mammal of her size and age and should not limit any chances for her to conceive a baby in the future, Thompson said.

“It bears nothing bad for the future at all,” he said. “This is a very common thing with young mammals.”

Thompson said that while everyone was looking forward to a new baby panda, the past few weeks have been a learning experience that he hopes to build on for next year, when zoo scientists will try again.

Zoo scientists have collected enough sperm from Le Le to inseminate Ya Ya for the next four years.

“We are not discouraged, just disappointed for this year,” he said

“Now that it’s over, we can go back and examine all the data we collected in regards to her behavior and hormones and even the ultrasound images … and try again next year.” “

Today we read where a new baby Panda is expected soon at the Memphis zoo. Here is a story about it Panda At Memphis Zoo is Pregnant.

I can’t wait till the baby is born. The last baby Panda born in the US was Mei Lan last September at the Atlanta Zoo. I read on the Atlanta zoo website – Panda Update that Mei Lan is growing like a weed and weighs 39 lbs now.

I love all the Pandas on earth. One of my hobbies is collecting Panda stuffed animals. My Daddy sometimes feels like someone is watching him, but it is just all my Panda stuffed animals sitting together on a chair. One of my stuffed Pandas, Panda Precious, is how I came up with the name for this website.

My dad just showed me news articles about new Giant Panda babies being born in China and the US. I love new baby Pandas because they are pink. Here is the story:

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Giant pandas at zoos in U.S., China give birth

Updated Thu. Sep. 7 2006 9:21 AM ET
Associated Press

BEIJING — A giant panda in southwest China has given birth to a pair of twins, state media said, the latest additions in a baby boom for the endangered animals.

Ya Ya, who lives in the Chongqing Zoo, delivered the babies about an hour apart early Tuesday, China News Service said.
They were her first cubs, it said, and both mother and babies are healthy. The zoo has been closed for a week to give Ya Ya some peace, it said.

One has been taken to the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre, also in Sichuan province, because Ya Ya cannot produce enough milk for both cubs, it said.

Ya Ya was mated with 11-year-old Ling Ling from Wolong in April. The pandas watched a mating video before breeding, China News Service said.

On Wednesday, zoo officials in Atlanta also announced a rare giant panda birth, one of only a few in the United States.
Lun Lun delivered her first cub just before 5 p.m., zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Waller said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on its website that indications were that the baby was healthy and being cared for by its mother.

Panda keepers will remain on watch for up to 24 hours to see if the baby panda, estimated to weigh just 113 grams, had a twin, the newspaper said. Fifty per cent of panda births result in twin cubs.

Only four giant pandas have been born and successfully raised in a U.S. zoo.

Zoo Atlanta artificially inseminated the eight-year-old Lun Lun at the end of March with semen taken from her partner, Yang Yang. They had tried for several years to successfully mate the pair naturally.

A panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., born last summer was also the product of artificial insemination.

Last month, the Chinese government announced the birth of four sets of panda twins. China has more than 180 pandas living in captivity, according to the government.

A 2002 Chinese government census found there were just 1,596 pandas left in the wild. But state media has said a new study by Chinese and British scientists has found there might be as many as 3,000.