MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Little zoo visitors, Addison and Olivia, could not wait to get inside the Memphis Zoo to see the giant pandas on exhibit.
Excitement felled the air after two giant panda cubs were born in Washington, DC.
“I wish they were here,” Kimberly Miller said. “I want to see them.”
“To have a panda — a cub just in general is amazing, but to have twins is very exciting,” Laura Doty, spokesperson for the Memphis Zoo, said.
The Memphis Zoo was just one of four zoos in the country with giant pandas.
“We have two here,” Doty said. “We have Le Le, who is our male, and Ya Ya, who is our female.”
After watching video from the National Zoo of cubs being born, some zoo-goers in Memphis got an urge for cubs of our own.
“I thought it’d be cool if I had some born here,” on visitor said.
“They have a very short period that they can get pregnant in. It’s about three days the whole year. So we always try for sure — sometimes naturally, sometimes artificially. It just kind of depends either way. So we will see if our own Ya Ya is pregnant,” Doty said.
The Memphis Zoo said it works with other zoos across the country that have pandas — especially when it comes to giving birth and getting pandas pregnant.
Veterinarians in Memphis will likely study how vets in DC are taking care of “momma bear” and her cubs, so they are prepared if our own Ya Ya is ever pregnant.
“Everybody knows there’re not pandas everywhere. We’re few of the zoos that have them. It would be a plus if we have them — baby pandas,” a zoo guest said.
