Panda News from around the world
Bai Yun, the wonder mum of San Diego who this year gave birth to her 5th cub turned 18 years old on the 7th August.
Bai Yun was the first captive-born panda. She transfered to San Diego in 1996 where she has lived since. She first gave birth to Hua Mei in 1999, then Mei Sheng in 2003, Su Lin in 2005, Zhen Zhen in 2007 and a not yet named cub this year.
Her first daughter Hua Mei gave birth to twind Mei Ling and Tuan Tuan in 2004, Tuan Tuan was the male panda who went to Taiwan last year.
Xian Xi and Jing Jing two four year old pandas are settling in well to their new home at Xi-Xia mouth in Rongcheng in Shangdong Province.
The pair arrived on 2nd September and went on show on the 4th.
The pair tool the 15 hour journey from BiFengxia newa Ya'an Sichuan.
Their new home is a specially build 500 squared meter Panda House, with trees a pool and a climbing frame.
At 7:12 (not sure am or pm) Zhu Zhu a female panda at the Shaanxi Province Rare Wildlife Rescue Research Centre gave birth to a 206 gram panda cub.
Zhu Zhu is a 9 year old panda and was artificially inseminated between April 15th and 17th.
Zhu Zhu gave birth last year to a male panda "Qin Chuan" on July 27th 2008.
Bai Yun's fifth cub has had it's first examination.
The examination proved that the cub is very a very healthy 1,259 gramms (2.8 pounds) and 37cm (14.7 inches), and it's a boy.
Well done to everyone at San Diego Zoo, who have put an awful lot of work into breeding pandas, so much so that they make it look like child's play.
Ya Lao Da of Chengdu gave birth to a little girl cub on August 23rd 2009.
News from Chengdu is a little late in ariving, not sure if there is some problem there, does any of our readers know?
The WWF is about to start a new TV ad campaign in the UK to increase the awareness of their adoption programmes. First up will be ads for the giant panda and amur leopard. Appointees will be asked to donate a minimum of £3 a month, for which they will receive an adoption pack and quarterly updates on their species.
You don't have to wait for the commercials you can sign up now at www.wildadoption.com
The cub that was born on the 26th of August to Ying Ying could of been sired by Mei Sheng, the giant panda that was born in San Diego Zoo and returned to China.
Mei Sheng was one of two pandas who mated with Ying Ying when she came into season. The other panda who mated with Ying Ying was Lu Lu
Mei Sheng was only mated with Ying Ying. It was the first time that he had been mated.
Currently they do not know who the father is, but DNA tests could be done to establish the father, as such is the interest in Mei Sheng.
Ying Ying has given birth to a female cub weighing 158.5g at Bifengxia near Ya'an.
Well done to Ying Ying and all staff at BFX.
Come on Chengdu, where are your cubs this year. I hope everything is ok and the pandas are just a little late giving birth.
The Washington Post has a wonderful story about the men who are responsible for the sourcing and gathering of food for the Washington National Zoo, especially the pandas.
140 years ago Pere Jean Pierre Armand David was the first westerner to see a Giant Panda. To celebrate 20 hikers have been following in his foot steps and retrace the route he took from Chengdu To Yaan.
Along the route the hikers have been painstakingly searching for wild giant pandas, but did not see any. Though they have found evidence of the panda along the way.
Even though giant pandas have poor eye sight, they do have excellent hearing and sense of smell, with which they can detect humans long before the humans can see them.
Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan are both due to become mature pandas are hopefully will be able to mat next year. Hopefully producing the first panda cub to be born in Taiwan.
To care for such young animals, the curator from Taipei Zoo in Taiwan rushed to Sihuan to learn how to look after Panda Cubs. Yuan Yuan showed signs of coming in to heat in February this year. Hopefully Tuan Tuan will show signs next year.
A two day Ceremony will be held from the 27th of August to say farewell to Yang Yang the eight year old giant panda who been vacating at Guilin Zoo for the past two years.
Yang Yang will then return home to Bifengxia Research Centre near Ya'an Sihuan.
Whilst Yang Yang has been at Guilin Zoo, the zoo has many many improvements for him and have put in a request to home other pandas in the not too distant future. These they hope will be younger at around two years of age.