In the real and figurative senses this morning, but all work-safe. The news that Mei Mei--probably one of the most famous pandas in the world--has died has led me on a whirlwind swing through the BBC archives. I'm not completely awake yet--I tended bar at a legislative function in Sacramento last night--please bear (ha ha) with my scatteredness.
Okay. So it's sad that Mei Mei has died, but she was the equivalent of 108 human years old, and her keepers estimate that she lived quite a bit longer than most giant pandas. And I'm including the link because there's also a photo of newborn giant pandas, which are a lot smaller than I expected, and look nothing like what they will become.
Where do pandas come from? Concerned that Hua Mei, raised in captivity, might not know what to do when it was time to get down with a guy panda, keepers showed her films of panda sex. Giant pandas only mate for three or four days a year, so it's not like there's a lot of time to figure it out, and pandas in captivity are much less interested in sex than wild ones (which should surprise no-one). This seems to have worked with some male pandas. The article doesn't answer any of my questions about whether there are fluffers in panda porn, or if the stars shave, but you can just ignore my gutter mind and go on to the next bits, which all feature babies--baby red pandas. Speaking of which, stepping to another Brit for a moment, here's Pik on the subject of red pandas.
Where do the pandas get the energy for all this cavorting? Well, researchers have developed special energy biscuits (remember that this is the Beeb, so that may mean what us Yanks think of as "cookies") packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. I guess they administer the Viagra separately; these biscuits aren't that comprehensive. I love the detail that to keep from confusing the pandas, the biscuits are bamboo-shaped. Which leads me to wonder if they have anything stamped on them, like human cookies: a little schoolboy, a logo, elves, what-have-you.
Article claims they're delicious, and I'm reminded of something that always bothered me as a child about dog biscuits: are there human tasters on these things? When I was a kid my best friend always snacked on the Milk Bones when she came to her house, but she could never get me to try one. But a bamboo-shaped panda biscuit? Hmm.
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