Panda News from around the world
Our friends over at Memphis Zoo have released the first part of a trilogy of three short films about the insemination of Ya Ya.
My good friend and keeper over at Bifengxia in China, has emailed me to let me know that Xi Xi was artificially inseminated, after natural breeding failed.
Xi Xi was at Wolong when the earthquake happened and she managed to escape but was later rescued again.
Lets hope that we'll soon hear the patter of little panda feet.
Many thanks Mr Li, for the update.
On February 12th 2009 a gale roared across Wolong, causing more destruction on a place that is still trying to repair the wounds caused by the earthquake of May 12th 2008.
A 40 mile an hour caused sand and stone to fly, landslides caused by the earthquake to be whipped into the air. It damaged 341 temporary dwellings, 12 emergency toilets, 7 bathrooms, 65 satellite receivers and 3022 sq m of greenhouses. Some communications and power transmission lines were destroyed. The estimated cost of the damages is nearly 1 Million Yuan.
CCTV reported on Thursday that around 30 local farmers help rescue a wild panda that had become it's back leg entwined by vines in a mountainous area.
The panda was given simple treatment and later released back into the wild. Many farmers see the pandas as friends and help them when they become trapped.
Whilst surfing the internet I came across another panda news site. This time in German.
So follow the link below and check it out. I can't read German myself so can not review it. If you read German please let me know what you think.
Work on rebuilding the Wolong China Coservation and Research Centre is expected to begin this spring. The centre will be moved from Hetaoping to close by Gengda.
The new centre will contain:
A laboratory covering 650 sq meters.
A panda hospital.
A training ground for preparing pandas born in captivity to live in the wild.
An environmental education centre.
A bamboo forest for feeding the captive pandas.
It is expected to cost 2 billion yuan with over 1.3 billion expected in aid from Hong Kong.
Wonderful pic of Fu Long playing in the snow with his mum.
(I need to go back and see him (All in the name of getting some pictures for you of course))
The earthquake that killed 80,000 people, left millions homeless and all but destroyed the Wolong Panda Reserve, could of been caused by the massive dam that was built a few years ago.
The 511ft high Zipingpu dam holds 315 million tonnes of water and lies just 550 yards from the fault line that caused the earthquake and 3 miles away from the epicentre.
Fan Xiao, the chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in Chengdu, said it was "very likely" that the construction and filling of the reservoir in 2004 had led to the disaster.
In the week since the infamous Taiwan pandas went on display 175,386 people have visited the zoo. With many of them visiting the pandas as well. This was due partly to the week being the annual lunar new year.
Now that the holiday is over the zoo is reducing the number of visitors to see the pandas each day to 19,200 and reducing the time the panda house will be open (9:10am - 5pm).
Head over to Perfect pandas where they have some wonderful photos and videos of little Xi Lan the Atlanta panda cub.
Thanks to Helen for finding these photos and sending them in.
Plans that have been started to reconstruct the destruction caused by the massive earthquake on May 12th 2008, but some experts are warning that hasty rebuilding could accelerate the fragmentation of the fragile pandas habitat.
"The earthquake and the human response to the earthquake are actually posing new threats to the long-term viability of the wild pandas," said Marc Brody, founder of the conservation group Panda Mountain—U.S.-China Environmental Fund. Brody has been working in the region for nearly a decade and is helping the Chinese government with blueprints for reconstruction.