Mei Xiang’s panda cub. (Courtesy Smithsonian National Zoo/Marty Dearie) Giant panda Mei Xiang’s 6-week-old cub is beginning to open its eyes, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo keepers said in an update Friday. During a weekly checkup, keeper Marty Dearie described the cub “as wide awake, alert and very vocal while we took its measurements!” The cub now weighs 3.6 pounds, and is 14 inches from nose to tail tip. “Just like all babies, giant pandas go through spurts of steadiness and growth. All in all, we are very happy with the progress it is making — it is gaining weight and very active,” Dearie said. “One new and exciting development is that the cub’s eyes are beginning to open!” Dearie said that the cub’s eyes will be fully open at 8 weeks. After that will come the cub’s ears. The cub’s DNA is still being analyzed to determine its sex. See video of the cub crawling below. And get panda updates from the Smithsonian online.
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Mesmerizing jellyfish take center stage at 1st US museum dedicated solely to the floating predators
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The floating tentacled predators pulse and swirl in hypnotic patterns in the dark museum space, lit primarily by images projected on the walls and the glowing light from the saltwater tanks.
The private Jellyfish Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, is believed to be the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to the translucent invertebrates, and one of the few such spaces in the world, according to the city and the museum’s founders.
It was created by Alex and Yana Yanovsky, who previously developed successful aquariums in Ukraine, including their first jellyfish museum in Kyiv. The couple left those facilities behind when they fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion, operations manager Jessica Eisenbarth said.
The museum, which opened this past spring, is the couple's first aquatic attraction since immigrating to the U.S., but they'd like to expand.
