If Su Lin the giant panda had thrown herself a one-year-old
birthday party, she’d have had a lot of panda friends to play with.
That’s because she is one of 19 captive pandas to turn a year old in
2006.
Su Lin lives in the San Diego Zoo in California. At birth
she was about the size and weight of a stick of butter. She now weighs
75 pounds (34 kilograms). Su Lin is the third giant panda cub ever born
at the California zoo. All the cubs born in the 2005 panda baby boom
give hope for the future of this critically endangered species.
Pandas at Risk
Scientists
estimate that fewer than 2,000 giant pandas live in the mountains of
central China. About another 200 giant pandas live in zoos and breeding
stations, mostly in China. Giant pandas are among the most rare of the
world’s living mammals.
