Tai Shan (Chinese: 泰山; pinyin: Tài Shān, pronounced [tʰâiʂán]), also known as Butterstick) is a giant panda born at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo) in Washington, D.C on July 9, 2005 at 3:41 AM. He is the first panda cub born at the National Zoo to survive for more than a few days and is only the third to survive in the United States.
Tai Shan is the first cub born to Mei Xiang ([mèiɕjɑ́ŋ]) and Tian Tian ([tʰjɛntʰjɛn]), th...
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Tai Shan (Chinese: 泰山; pinyin: Tài Shān, pronounced [tʰâiʂán]), also known as Butterstick) is a giant panda born at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo) in Washington, D.C on July 9, 2005 at 3:41 AM. He is the first panda cub born at the National Zoo to survive for more than a few days and is only the third to survive in the United States.
Tai Shan is the first cub born to Mei Xiang ([mèiɕjɑ́ŋ]) and Tian Tian ([tʰjɛntʰjɛn]), the National Zoo's second pair of giant pandas. (The first pair, Ling-Ling (female) and Hsing-Hsing (male), were donated to the National Zoo by China in 1972, shortly after Richard Nixon's historic visit. Ling-Ling died in 1992 and Hsing-Hsing in 1999 without producing any cubs that survived for more than a few days.)
Both of Tai Shan's parents were born at the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan Province. Mei Xiang, his mother, was artificially inseminated in March 2005 with sperm from Tian Tian after...
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