Panda News from around the world
On Wednesday 6th January Yun Zi, made his first public appearance before waiting photographers. As of that date, he can be seen in "The Classroom" for a few hours each day.
The National Zoo will be holding a special farewell to Tai Shan Day, on the 30th January 2010 between 11 am and 3pm.
There will be keeper talks, a display of Tai Shan photos and more.
I'll post more when I have more information.
After the jump is a short video on how Matt a panda keeper at Adelaide zoo takes the temperature of Wang Wang, their newest panda.
Very interesting to watch.
The ten panda cubs who have been selected to go to Shanghai for the 2010 Shanghai Expo are due to leave on the 5th of January.
The ten pandas were all born in 2008 at Bifengxia, Ya'an after the terriable earthquake of May 12th 2008.
Just wanted to wish everyone and every panda a happy new year.
Sorry the articles have been a bit slow coming recently, I've started a new job and then got really ill with a virus that's going round.
Hopefully things will settle in the new year.
Andi
If you've been following this site for a while you may remember that I was quite concerned that the breeding centre at Chengdu had only reported 4 cubs this year. (A pair of twins and 2 separate cubs).
Researchers at Chengdu have now reported that the mothers there are exhausted and that is why there were so few cubs this year.
There was a total of 18 panda cubs born in 2008. I hope that the pandas have taken a well deserved year off and will be back next year with a greater number of cubs.
China has begun to build a fourth giant panda breeding base in northwestern Shaanxi Province. The centre is expected to bring at least an additional eight cubs in to the world each year.
The Qinling giant panda breeding base will cover 287 hectares and cost around 70 million yuan (10.2 million U.S. dollars)
The base will have eight breeding pens, and will start with 22 pandas with that total expected to reach 40 with in a couple of years.
The other breeding bases are at Chengdu, Beijing zoo and the world famous Wolong Nature Reserve (Bifengxia and the destroyed Wolong base)
The last circus trained panda died earlier in the year, it has recently been revealed.
Ying Ying was born in 1984 in Sichuan Province and sent to a circus in Wuhan City, There he learnt to play basketball, drive and play horns and started to perform on stage in 1986.
In 1988, China signed the Washington Treaty that banned endangered animals from being trained in the circus.
Ying Ying died in July of 2009. His trainer Bai Yuling said she considered Ying Ying as her son, as they had been together for more than 20 years.
140 VIP guests had the privilege of being the first paying dinner guests of Adelaide's latest celebrities, Giant Pandas Wang Wang and Funi.
The dinner hosted in the new bamboo "Panda Forest", next to the panda enclosure. Who seemed unaware of all the fuss around them. Wang Wang snoozed and Funi chomped on bamboo while their dinner guests dined on an Asian-inspired three-course meal prepared by guest chef Poh Ling Yeow.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has thrown his support behind Toronto Zoo's campaign to obtain a pair of breeding pandas.
After the break is a short video about Fu Long and how he's getting on in Bifengxia.
An update from Adelaide Zoo on how Funi and Wang Wang are settling in.