Dec. 1, 2005 — There was "panda-monium" at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo on Tuesday as fluffy giant panda cub Tai Shan cavorted for the cameras, in his first encounter with the media pack.

The black-and-white cub, nearly five months old, went through his paces for five shifts of journalists and cameramen, stretching on rocks in the enclosure and hiding behind grass.

He splashed through water in his pen and at one stage bounced back up after falling awkwardly off a small rock.

Normally staid Washington has been swooning over Tai Shan, using a Web cam posted inside his enclosure to keep tabs on the cute little cub, which now weighs 21 pounds (9.5 kilograms).

"Some days he gets up really early, around four or five in the morning, and starts playing like crazy, climbing on his mother, climbing on the rocks," Assistant Curator Lisa Stevens said on "The Early Show" on CBS.

"Then other mornings, he sleeps in. So it's very variable."

Tai Shan goes on public display on Dec. 8, and such is his appeal that all 13,000 tickets for a first round of public viewing were snapped up within two hours on the zoo's Web site.

The baby panda's mother, seven-year-old Mei Xiang, was artificially inseminated in March with sperm from Tian Tian, her seven-year-old zoo companion. Mom and dad are on a 10-year loan from China that began in 2000.

Tai Shan, which means "peaceful mountain" in Chinese, will spend two years in Washington D.C.'s National Zoo before he is returned to China.

The name emerged first in an online poll which pulled in more than 200,000 votes.

Giant panda births are exceedingly rare and, in line with Chinese tradition, the cub was not named until 100 days after its birth, when survival is considered assured.

Tai Shan was born pink and hairless on July 9, and zookeepers kept up a daily vigil of his first steps and other milestones, included in a daily online diary.

The first time Tai Shan was pried away from his mother for his first newborn check up on Aug. 2, he weighed 1.82 pounds (0.8 kilograms) and measured 12 inches (32 centimeters) long.

By Oct. 12, he had bulked up to 12.7 pounds (5.7 kilograms), was 25.5 inches (68 centimeters) long and had developed the giant panda’s distinctive black spots.

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Name: Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
Primary Classification: Ursidae (Bears)
Location: The Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi provinces in central China.
Habitat: Temperate bamboo forests.
Diet: Bamboo, almost exclusively.
Size: Up to 6 ft in length and 250 lbs in weight.
Description: Black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs and shoulders; white fur everywhere else; thick, woolly coat; broad, round face and flat nose; large molars; round, protruding ears; round body with short, sturdy limbs.
Cool Facts: Mothers will eat their cubs' stools to eliminate any evidence of their presence, thereby avoiding potential predators. They need to eat more than 22 lbs of bamboo per day to satisfy their daily requirement of nutrients.
Conservation Status: Endangered
Major Threat: Habitat loss and poaching.
What Can I Do?: Visit Pandas International, Smithsonian's National Zoo and The Hong Kong Society for Panda Conservation for information on how you can help.

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