I imagine that this may become a series on unfairness, as there are many, many things that aren't fair. But today, I'll mention just one.The giant panda at the Atlanta Zoo gave birth this week. This is of special interest to us because Carter's favorite stuffed panda is from the Atlanta Zoo.
Giant pandas are, more or less, human-sized. They are 4-6 feet long and weigh 175-275 pounds, on average. And yet, their babies weigh only about 4 ounces, about the size of a human hand. For those of you who are blissfully unaware, a human baby weighs in at over 7 pounds on average. If you look at the video of the baby panda, you'll see how tiny the baby is compared to the mother. I wonder if the mother even noticed that she was giving birth.
Of course, giant pandas also start to reproduce between 4-8 years of age and only live to be in their late twenties/early thirties, so there are things that aren't fair to the panda too. But still.
On a serious note, there are very few giant pandas left in the world, so we do hope that Lun Lun and her cub are doing well, unfairness aside.
2 comments:
There have been several pages of coverage about the panda's birth here in the Atlanta paper -- and so far the mother is doing a great job of caring for the baby, which isn't always the case. The paper said labor took 35 hours, all to deliver a 4 oz. baby! Since 50% of all panda births involve twins, a second was hoped for but didn't materialize. You can see details at zooatlanta.org if the crashed site is now working again. Granddaddy Cart Cart
On the other hand, Ithink elephants are pregnant a LONG time. Another example of unfairness--or it could be worse.
Mom
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