amazing animals

Giant panda Tai Shan is a celebrity in his own right. When he was born at the Smithsonian s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in July 2005he prompted a 50 percent increase in zoo attendance and a rash of fan Web sites. He earned the nickname Butterstick after a zoo worker described him shortly after birth as about the size of a stick of butter. Because Tai Shan s parents are on lease from China, even though the cub was born in the United States, he still belongs to China by law.In February 2010 Tai Shan boarded a special FedEx cargo jet to his permanent home at the Bifengxia Panda Base in Sichuan, China. In this image Tai Shan is 11 weeks old.