Many new mothers take note of their infants' eating and sleeping patterns and developmental achievements.

Rebecca Snyder, MS Psy 96, PhD 00, is doing the job for new mother Lun Lun, Zoo Atlanta's female giant panda, who in early September gave birth to a furless and blind baby compared in size to a stick of butter. Snyder, curator of giant panda research and management at the zoo, is maintaining an online journal detailing Lun Lun's maternal skills and the cub's development.

Snyder was the first Tech graduate student to study pandas in China, where she met Lun Lun and the male, Yang Yang, shortly after their births. The pandas arrived at Zoo Atlanta on loan from China in 1999.

Joining Snyder and staffers in their celebration of a long-wanted panda birth was CEO Dennis Kelly, ME 76, who replaced Tech psychology professor Terry Maple as keeper of the zoo.

Nineteen days after giving birth, Lun Lun left the cub long enough for zoo workers to conduct a physical exam and determine the baby is a female.

Zoo Atlanta is providing a live Web feed of mother and baby along with Snyder's daily updates at http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_giant_panda_cub_updates.htm.