Thousands Attend Zoo Debut of Giant Panda Cub

Like eager relatives waiting to see a new baby, hundreds of people stood in line for hours Friday for the first public appearance of Hua Mei at the San Diego Zoo.

But the 5-month old giant panda wasn’t fazed by all the attention. She slept right through it.

“Daddy, I can’t see it!” cried 2 1/2-year-old Jacob Herstein, protected from a slight drizzle by a tiny yellow slicker and hat.

“I want to go up there,” he said, pointing to the tree branch where Hua Me was napping, with only her hindquarters visible.

Hua Mei, whose name means China-USA, is the first giant panda born in the United States to survive past four days.

Since her birth in August, zoo officials have sheltered Hua Mei and her mother, Bai Yun, from zoo visitors to ensure that they would bond without distraction.

The cub’s father, Shi Shi, is kept away from the cub because his territorial instincts make him a threat to the cub. But the family shares adjoining 30-by-40-foot outdoor enclosures filled with grass, trees and bamboo. They also can roam a 9,000-square-foot area where researchers study their behavior.

Armed with cameras, tripods and binoculars, about 7,800 people attended the debut, a zoo spokeswoman said. Bigger crowds are expected this weekend.

Hua Mei and her mother will be on display daily for a few hours. The reopening of the exhibit coincides with the Chinese New Year; the cub’s parents are on a 12-year research loan to the zoo from China. They arrived in 1996.

“When the pandas first got here, she came every day after work,” Roger Ballentyne, a painting contractor, said of his wife, Linda. The La Mesa couple skipped work Friday so they could get a good spot in line to see the cub.

“Once you see them, you fall in love with them,” said Linda Ballentyne, who has a collection of more than 100 stuffed pandas. “They’re so sweet. They just make you smile.”

Her friend, Susan Roberts, a Web site developer, said she keeps the zoo’s Web site running on her computer browser throughout the day. A camera in the cub’s den allows the Internet-savvy a 24-hour view of the panda, and zoo officials say the site receives 2 1/2 million hits each month.

“There’s something about pandas, their presence,” Roberts said. “They’re so sweet, so docile. It’s very calming to watch them.”

There are only about 1,000 giant pandas living wild in their native China, and scientists hope that through breeding technology they can boost the endangered species’ numbers.

Four other giant pandas have been born in the United States, the most recent in 1989. All were born at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and all of them died.

The last birth of a giant panda in the Western Hemisphere was in 1990 at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, but the cub died on the eighth day. The newborn was accidentally crushed by its mother, who biologists believe was upset at a constant stream of visits.

“That’s why we took our time with Hua Mei,” said Don Lindburg, leader of the zoo’s panda team. “We wanted to give her every chance possible to survive.”

He said the zoo staff has been “humbled” by watching a pinkish, four-ounce baby grow to a black-and-white, 22-pound bundle.

“She’s a healthy, energetic cub,” he said. “There’s a huge luck factor in that.”

The zoo may try artificial insemination again with Bai Yun next year.