Show J HE’S A SENSATION a California girl loaded with star quality More than 100000 visitors flock to her Internet site every month with a live Web cam tracking her every move A national TV documentary scours every sizzling detail of her life Gawkers in tour buses line up outside her home and surrender to her charms in a soothing sonata of hushed gasps and fawning whispers Flutter Sigh That’s the life of well a panda Especially when she’s Hua Mei the only panda born in captivity in the United States to survive beyond four days of life Jn Aftgust as Hua Mei celebrates her second birthday at her San Diego Zoo habitat would it be hyperbolic to proclaim pluck off the shelves $2295 sweatshirts antenna balls and even a $399 shot glass with Hua Mei’s likeness For 99-ce- nt hours before zoogoers she lounges about back to her audience No one complains By midday however Hua Mei takes a star turn She sits up and munches down a pile of bamboo branches as if they were pretzel rods The crowd starts buzzing Fathers lift children on their shoulders A cacophony of clicking cameras and rolling video recorders unfolds Spectators reach out with extended arms “She’s close enough to touch!” one shouts “She’s sooo cute with her little face eating the bamboo” says Rebecca Ralston an visitor from Foothill Ranch Calif “She’s like a big teddy bear” But a living one — a key point that connects with young people here SAVING THE WORLD By Dennis McCafferty that she’s the most celebrated observed and otherwise adored furry being of all time? To take it further would it be scientific sacrilege to suggest she is no less than the most important animal on Earth? Hua Mei has emerged as the quintessential poster girl of endangered species With a lift of her furry head and soft round paw she effortlessly inspires what can be described as “the cuddly effect” Surely the vanishing Costa Rican golden toad can’t provoke the same behavioral response because — let’s not mince words — awarty slimy toad is a warty slimy toad At the San Diego Zoo gift shop visitors s 6 USA WEEKEND June 4 2001 As Rebecca puts it: “We need to do everything we can to make sure we keep pandas around They may only be a memory if we don’t” Yet with her Q rating off the charts thought is divided within the preservation movement about her actual contribution to conservation The Washington DC-base- d ' j World Wildlife Fund for example remains the leading voice for endangered animals For four decades it has sported a panda I |