Busy Day at the Zoo

Ahhh, so this is why there were so many people at the zoo when I rode by yesterday:











Story from chinapost.com.tw
Giant panda enclosure opens to full house
Taipei, Taiwan -- The daily quota of visitors at the new giant pandas' enclosure was reached yesterday; three days after the endangered animals from China completed their quarantine, a Taipei Zoo official said yesterday.

All 22,000 tickets allotted for the day were snapped up within four hours after the zoo opened at 9:00 a.m., said Taipei Zoo manager Jason Yeh, who attributed the soaring number of visitors to yesterday's mild weather.

In the first two days after the Chinese New Year, fewer than 19,000 of the 22,000 slots were issued because of the rainy and chilly weather, he pointed out.

The male Tuan Tuan and female Yuan Yuan, both four years old, were seen wrestling and having fun playing with each other after breakfast.

Their enthusiastic interaction thrilled viewers, with some wondering if the endangered animals' frequent smelling of each other meant Yuan Yuan was in heat.

Yeh stressed that the animals were only playing with each other as giant female pandas are not usually in heat until March, and their typical mating period is between March and May.

According to the zoo, the two giant pandas sleep about 10 hours a day while eating for much of the rest of the day because of the low calorie content of bamboo. Bamboo is the staple of the animal that DNA tests suggest belongs to its own sub-family within the Ursidae, or bear, family.

Although the two giant pandas, named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, arrived in Taiwan from Sichuan province in southwestern China on Dec. 23, they were not shown in public until Jan. 26, because they had to remain in quarantine for at least one month.

The arrival of the giant pandas triggered a media frenzy befitting the arrival of a major world leader or rock star, with many in Taiwan overcome with anticipation to see the chubby bamboo-eating animals.

To control an expected crush of visitors to the Taipei Zoo's giant panda pavilion, the zoo set a daily visitor quota to ensure that as many people as possible catch a glimpse of the animals.

The two giant pandas were a gift from Beijing that many critics said was part of its strategy to unify China and Taiwan. The combined name of the two pandas — Tuan Yuan — means reunion in Chinese.