Guys, suspend all activities you had planned for this Monday morning. THERE IS A NEW PANDA CUB AT THE NATIONAL ZOO. Here is your panda cam.
Mei Xiang, the zoo’s Giant Panda momma, gave birth to her second (the first was D.C. local phenom Tai Shan, aka Butterstick) late last night, after five pseudopregnancies that ended with no panda cubs. The zoo says that mother and baby are bonding:
Mei Xiang is behaving exactly the same way she did when Tai Shan was born. She is cradling her cub closely, and she looks so tired, but every time she tries to lay down, the cub squawks and she sits right up and cradles the cub more closely. She is the poster child for a perfect panda mom.
OK, there is not soooo much to see on the panda cam yet. At press time, you could see Mei Xiang snoozing, but the cub is hidden away somewhere (it’s still really small!). But there is a hashtag: #cubwatch. Refresh that until someone reports spotting this ball of panda joy.
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