Baby panda gives fans a short first glimpse

Vienna Schönbrunn Zoo's baby panda Fu Long gave his fans a short, first glimpse of himself around noon on Wednesday, the day of the official opening of the panda house to visitors after his birth last year.

Some 40 fans and journalists enjoyed the show behind a glass partition in front of the pandas' inner cage before his mother Yang Yang picked him up and took him back inside to his litter box.

Zoo Director Dagmar Schratter said that she hoped that Fu Long would behave as well in the next few days as he had on Tuesday, when a class from a private primary school in Vienna-Döbling had the very first glimpse of the baby panda. Fu Long had been "very curious," she said.

The baby's mother had allowed it to go into the inner-cage area shortly before midday, and the children were able to observe it there.

A ten-year-old girl said that "we will be excited all day. It is a very special day for us."

The kids were allowed to enter the panda house because they had won an ORF Ö3-radio handicraft contest.

Only 30 visitors at a time were supposed to be allowed into the panda house as of Wednesday.

Schratter added that she did not expect a huge number of visitors before the weekend.

30.01.2008 16:04:15