Baby panda appears before selected guests, media at Ueno Zoo

Sorry, Yuriko, endangered animals are not the treasure of Tokyo. Pandas taken from their natural habitat to live in a cage and be gawked at for the sake of commercial profit is pretty sick.

Bingo! Made my heartbreak to see the polar bear run in circles at the San Diego zoo back in 92. Disgusting!

With all the expected media / public frenzied attention, I'd thought Ueno would have made the Panda quarters slightly more ....you know natural, expansive considering this is a money spinner for them. 

I know there is an adjacent area that actually has some real plants and grass, but for the premier zoo in Japan, this is an embarrassment.

And an equal concern is the fawning public, focussed head-on to kawaiiii! The tv accounts sent shivers down my spine. A tree trunk / log bolted into a metal support is not a tree, but the newscasters think so, as they explained with delight how the little one climbs and nestles himself in the tree.

Research, education about, protection and conservation of wild animals is paramount in 21st C models of "zooligical gardens".

Gawking shows, no matter how well intentioned, belong to a bygone era.

A rusty bolt in a concrete block in a small cell. The panda deserves a better environment.

@Goodluck

Absolutely right.

Along with local schoolchildren, selected media were permitted to watch and film

It's all for the show. It has nothing to do with protecting these animals. The Ueno Zoo is terrible. It's why these pandas have a higher mortality rate than those in the wild.

"a new treasure of Tokyo"

Sorry, Yuriko, endangered animals are not the treasure of Tokyo. Pandas taken from their natural habitat to live in a cage and be gawked at for the sake of commercial profit is pretty sick.

The question the media here never asks is why these pandas need to be in the Ueno Zoo in the first place.

Ah yes, keep animals in captivity away from there natural habitat and put them on display for people to look at like other stolen artifacts, and while your at it make a profit off these poor animals by selling merchandise bearing their likeness to gullible soulless individuals who are too blind to see the animals are not the ones benefiting from anything.

I'm afraid you're all missing the point slightly here. The panda is endangered for a reason. Nature has decided it's time for it to check out and all we're doing is getting in the way. I saw a documentary a while back about the panda's lot and it was heartbreaking. Those sad eyes are actually saying "...please, put me out of my misery". And what do we do? Just 'cos they're cute...? Spend the money on preserving a more deserving species, that's what I say...

(Sandbags and tin helmet at the ready...)

My thoughts completely..

Browny 1, your a legend...

keeping wild , endangered species in captivity, is always a roll of the dice..

lets hope , the future , for these Kirei/

kawaii animals looks rosy....