After the horrific earthquake that shook China on May 12th 2008, all the pandas at Wolong Panda Research Centre were moved out, as the Centre was destroyed.

Two of the refugees were Wei Wei and Xi Wang were sent to Wuhan Zoo, who took them in at short notice and have been looking after them since then. It has now been decided that as a thank you for coming to the aid of Wolong Research Centre, the two will now permanently live there.

The presentation ceremony is due to take place on May 12th 2010, the second anniversary of the earthquake.

Kouhin (Xing Bin) the nearly 5 year old Giant Panda born at Adventure World Japan, will be sent to Chengdu, the home of his parents on the 15th March 2010.

Two of his older siblings Ei Mei and Yu Hin have already gone to Chengdu and are part of the breeding program.

The Commercial Appeal is stating that Ya Ya the female giant panda at Memphis Zoo, is not pregnant. A ultrasound that was performed last week, showed a tiny fetus and a small heartbeat, but another ultra sound carried out recently shows the fetal sack is empty which means that Ya Ya had a miscarriage.

My sincere condolences to Ya Ya and the whole Giant Panda team. I hope you will have better luck next time.

Atlanta Zoo's nearly 18 month old Giant Panda will be gradually weaned away from his mother in to a solitary life in keeping with how pandas live in the wild.

San Diego developed the step wise programme and it was used to wean Mai Lan (Atlanta's 3 year old that has just gone to China) and also used at other zoos in America. The programme gradually increases the time away from the mother.

Xi Lan should be fully weaned by early march. Xi Lan has already started to eat solid foods including bamboo, leafeater biscuits and fruit.