Panda News from around the world
Mei Xiang's enclosure has been closed to the public as she starts to den, signifying that she may be pregnant and could be due soon. The process of denning involves the panda taking bamboo and food in to a small dark cave like structure.
"Any (other) time I've seen Mei with a pear, she's eating it," said Baker-Masson.
Just because Mei Xiang is denning does not mean that she is pregnant, many pandas go though the same process if they have a false pregnancy.
Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated in January after she shown that she was in heat.
The Harbin Northern Forest zoo has gotten a new panda after four years of their panda exhibit being empty. Originally the zoo built the panda house at a cost of 700,000 yuan (about $103,000) for a panda it borrowed from Beijing. When the panda returned the house was left empty. Now four years later the zoo has signed a deal with Chendgu Zoo to borrow a panda for a year.
China view is reporting that six Pandas have been transfered to Beijing Zoo to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The pandas Hua Ao, Jin Yi, Wen Yu, Xiang Ge, Shui Ling and Qing Feng took the two and a half flight to Beijing from their home at Bifengxia near Ya'an. After the journey some of the pandas staggered out of their transportation cages whilst other had to be coaxed out.
The pandas are expected to make their first public appearance in Beijing on May the first.
I'll just let the photos do the talking.
Experts have predicted that the areas that were effected by the May 12th earthquake last year may see a reduction in the number of panda cub births this year.
"Wild pandas must store energy before moving to higher altitudes for reproduction between March and July, but most of the bamboo plants in the habitats were buried in the quake, making it difficult for wild pandas to find food," said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in the Wolong nature reserve. "This will affect their reproduction.
The 6 pandas "Wen yu" , "Qing feng" , "Shui Ling" , "Wu juan" , "Xiang ge" and "Wang jia" who were left at Wolong Research Centre after the quake have been moved to the Bifengxia Research Centre.
The pandas were originally moved 6km away from the Wolong research centre and specialist care was provided.
The pandas who are nearly two now had to be moved as the temporary accommodation there is no longer suitable for them. The pandas have grown from around 20kgs each to 60-70 kgs each, and the centre is no longer safe for them.
Officials from Adelaide Zoo have paid a visit to see the two pandas who will be making the journey to Adelaide later in the year to live there for ten years.
Adelaide Zoo's SA chief Dr Chris West and president Heather Caddick, saw the pair at Bifengxia near Ya'an. They could only see Wang Wang as at 3 1/2 yeas old and 110kg he's way too big to accept personal visitors. Whilst the dainty Funi who's only 2 1/2 years old, the officials were able to get into the cage and feed her.
lovecatbear from Pandas Unlimited on Flickr has translated the following report.
A panda on a cliff in Heizhugou Nature Reserve
On April 22, a panda was spotted on a steep cliff by local villagers in Heizhugou Nature Reserve in Ebian Yi Nationality Autonomous County, Sichuan Province. Later, with some help of humans, the panda returned to the forest.
The San Diego Blog is reporting amongst other things that little Su Lin is going through her first, possibly preliminary, estrus (Panda Puberty).
It seems strange that she is now 3 1/2 years old. Where does the time go. I'm just wondering if she's going to be a "Normal" teenager and dye her fur pink, and get body jewelry.
She'll soon be going to her prom and leaving home.
Next year the Wolong Panda Research Centre will be 30 years old. To celebrate the occasion, renowned Chinese Film make Luo Xiao-Yun has been asked to produce a film.
Here are some photos from the shoot.
On Saturday 18th April 2009, 1600 paper machie Giant Pandas, tooko over Rome's Piazzo del Popolo. They were placed there by the World Wildlife Fund for nature (WWF) to raise awareness of the Giant Pandas plight. Each paper machie panda represents a real Panda as it is believed that only 1600 Giant Pandas remain in the wild.
As some of you remember I reported a while ago that Disney was making a new film "Trail of the Panda"
I'm not sure whether the film is due to be released out side of China, but there is an English Language trailer on you tube (See below). I'll send an email off to Disney to see when and where it will be released.
UPDATE
Accoring to IMDB (The movie Database) the film is due to be released in China on May 8th, but no date is given for the USA or UK release.