Join The Panda Birthday Party (SLIDESHOW)

Tai Shan the panda goes after a cake made for his fourth birthday celebration at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC. Tai Shan was presented with an ice cake made of water, bamboo, shredded beets and beet juice. The cake was topped with a sculpted bamboo.

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Comments

[chedet]

Happy belated birthday tai shan and stay cute!

[kittyarmy]

Oooooh, somebody got lucky =)

[nodonjuan]

Tai Shan is the most wonderful Giant Panda ever. His Momma really was a fantastic parent. I have watched him since birth. Look up Tai Shan and his apple & Tai Shan & Brian(one of his keepers) on youtube. He is one very special bear!

[PorkyDomesticus]

Aw, it's a cute bear making a pig of himself!

[jozzie]

Smart panda. Only eats raw food.

[jcause28]

Happy Birthday!

[edwarvir]

Happy Birthday I hope you enjoyed your cake Yum Yum

[Copeword]

I'm glad they didn't take the panda to a restaurant.

[jones]

Happy Birthday Mr. Panda. You know you are cute.

[sheriwriter]

Happy birthday Tai Shan. You and the cake are both adorable. Live long and eat many cakes.

[Fein]

It's a pretty picture. But I can';t help thinking that this picture is an eloquently descriptive testament to the current status of the Human race.

Tens of thousands of Humans are starving, and we give birthday parties to non sentient creatures.

[TigersEye]

I get your point but that cake is just made with some beets, bamboo and ice. It's nothing that most sentient creatures would get too worked up over.

[MTGradwell]

Non sentient creatures? The party was for the panda, not for the bamboo.

[valerief]

You can thank the one-percenters for that.

[pyro]

Non Sentient? Who says so. Were the one's that crap in our nest to the point of ruining it. In fact we are the reason they don't have a nest any more, we craped in those too. Maybe the critter are smarter than we are. They sure seem to have more common sense.

[chevyval]

It's alright to experience joy by looking at the pictures. You don't have to spin everything.

[Clare53]

Fancy cake.

[Bitsko]

It's a crying shame the vast majority of panda's no longer live in the wild.

[CardboardBox]

Why ice? I'm sure they'd like to get right to the snacks instead of going through a foot of ice. Second and third picture show that I think. Anyway, pandas are pretty cool creatures.

[Kalarchis]

Well, I don't think panda stomachs are designed to digest real cake :)

One of the points of this cake, I think, is that it's something new and interesting to play with. Very important for captive animals.

[DrPneumann]

I hope the D.C. zoo is well funded:

"The Franklin Park Zoo, an inner-city Boston institution that has drawn generations of city and suburban families, may be forced to close its doors and possibly euthanize some of its animals as a result of the deep budget cuts imposed by Governor Deval Patrick, zoo officials said today."

[dteg]

What kind of creature cuts the zoo funds. Pennsylvania needs to stop this.