Adorable alert: Watch panda cub Bei Bei try to convince mom to play rather than go to bed

Pandas

Giant Panda Mei Xiang and her cub Bei Bei, born on August 22, 2015, sit inside their enclosure as Bei Bei makes his first media appearance at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, December 16, 2015. (AFP / SAUL LOEB)

This was too adorable to pass by: a cuddle and snooze fest between 4-month-old panda cub Bei Bei and mom Mei Xiang.

Bei Bei (pronounced Bay-Bay) was born at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. to mom Mei and dad Tian Tian. While he isn’t out for public viewing yet (his debut will be Jan. 16), he and mom have a pair of 24-hour Panda Cam streams that panda lovers can watch their every move.

Flickr user mibewitched captured a series of shots from one of the cams close to midnight on Dec. 20. We strung them together and added some music for a stop-motion style view of panda cub life.

Bei Bei is seen playing in a nest when Mei comes along for a snuggle before bed. But while mom is interested in sleep, Bei Bei doesn’t appear to have the same priorities.

We imagine the exchange would have gone something like this:

Bei Bei: I’m not tired. I want to play!

Mei: Let’s cuddle, then it’s time for bed.

Bei Bei: But mom I want to play!

Mei: I’m going to sleep.

Bei Bei: Maybe I can escape while mom sleeps.

::Bei Bei fruitlessly attempts to escape::

Bei Bei: I’ll just play on mom, then!

Mei: I’m going somewhere else to sleep.

Bei Bei: Oo, bamboo! 


For more panda awesome, see all our reporting here.