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Say hello to Yun Zi
New panda’s name means ‘son of cloud’
By Jeanette Steele – The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — His fame started with his birth in August. The San Diego Zoo’s Web site crashed that day as fans worldwide piled in to watch the “panda cam.”
The celebrity status continued yesterday, when the cute-as-pie cub got a name: Yun Zi, which means “son of cloud.” His mother is Bai Yun, or “white cloud.”
Zoo leaders had expected the public to suggest just a few names for Bai Yun’s fifth cub. They instead received more than 6,300, and then 17,500 people voted online for one of five finalists.
The outpouring rivaled the buzz surrounding the zoo’s first cub, Hua Mei, in 1999. Zoo officials can’t really explain why.
Sure, Yun Zi is teddy-bear adorable. But all the zoo’s cubs have shared the same black-and-white color scheme and fluffy fur. Maybe the answer is that people are craving fun, what with a rickety economy and war on two fronts.
Just hours before receiving its official name, San Diego Zoo's newest panda cub weighs in at 13.2 pounds during its weekly check-up, Nov. 17, 2009. (Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo)
Becky Hilburn of El Cajon, who contributes to the zoo’s panda blog, suggested as much.
“People from all these other countries are writing in and talking about this little bear,” said Hilburn, who clicks on the panda cam a dozen times a day. “Everybody kind of likes everybody, and there’s no animosity.”
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