Panda debut packs ’em in at the zoo   

Cub greets a curious public for the first time

By John Wilkens, UNION-TRIBUNE

BALBOA PARK — Jerry Conklin was the first to arrive yesterday, camera in hand. He snapped a photo when the black-and-white fur ball came into view. He smiled, moved closer and took more pictures.

Within minutes, Conklin was joined by a dozen other visitors — and their smiles — during the first public viewing of Yun Zi, the newest baby panda at the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park.

“It’s just fun to see them when they’re young and feisty,” said Conklin, a Pacific Beach resident who has been a zoo member for more than 20 years.

There wasn’t a lot of feistiness at the outset as the 5-month-old, 22-pound cub lolled about in a hammock. His mother, Bai Yun, sat on tree branches overhead.

But a stationary target was fine with those who hurried to the exhibit shortly after the zoo opened at 9 a.m.

They crowded along the front railing and the air filled with the sound of photographic clicks and whirs, punctuated occasionally by exclamations of “how cute!”

Within 15 minutes the line was 60 deep and it kept growing as the morning unfolded. Zoo officials said more than 1,000 people visited the exhibit in the three hours the cub was on display. At its peak, the wait to get in was about 20 minutes.

Earnie Grafton / Union-Tribune Yun Zi, the 5-month-old, 22-pound cub, provided a fairly stationary subject for the many photographers. “It’s fun to see them when they’re young and feisty,” said one visitor.

Exhibit narrator Kay Ferguson encouraged visitors to “do the panda loop” — spend a few moments up front and then get back in line.

Saundra Haupt and her teenage daughter, Taylor, were among the happy loopers.

“We come to see the pandas whenever we can, and the first day is always special,” Saundra Haupt said.

Ronald Swaisgood, who helps run the panda program, said the public viewings are crucial to building awareness of the endangered animal. “People conserve what they love,” he said, “and they love what they understand.”

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