© 2025 Boise State Public Radio
NPR in Idaho
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Protect my public media

Post-Shutdown Palate Cleanser: Panda Cam Is Back!

The panda cub now weighs 5 pounds. This photo was taken Tuesday.
Courtney Janney
/
Smithsonian's National Zoo
The panda cub now weighs 5 pounds. This photo was taken Tuesday.

If the ugliness in Washington left a bad taste in your mouth, we have the perfect palate cleanser.

The panda cam at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, which was shutdown along with the federal government, is back online. It means you can once again ogle the now eight-week-old cub and her mother, Mei Xiang.

The zoo writes:

"Since the panda cams went dark, the cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones. She weighs 5 pounds (2.557 kilograms), up from 3.07 pounds (1.39 kilograms) at her veterinary exam Sept. 26. She also has partially opened her eyes. Keepers noticed that her right eye had started to open Oct. 4. By Oct. 11 both her eyes had partially opened. Her ears are also fully open and she now reacts to the noises she hears in the panda house."

The cam is here. We took a look a little while ago and the cub — which will not be named until it is 100 days old — was sleeping.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.

You make stories like this possible.

The biggest portion of Boise State Public Radio's funding comes from readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

Your donation today helps make our local reporting free for our entire community.