Panda News from around the world
At 12:36 Local time on July the 7th 2011 Su Lin (Born at San Diego Zoo), gave birth to the first cub of the year.
When the Cub was first born, Su Lin was a bit surprised but after a few minutes a strong maternal instinct took over and Su Lin began to mother the new cub.
At 13:12 another cub was born but this was an underdeveloped fetus and soon died. The keepers immediately took away this cub.
Su Lin and Cub are both being watched very carefully by staff via CCTV cameras.
Well done Su Lin, and congratulations to the hard working staff of CCRCGP at Wolong.
The Wolong Panda Park Blog has released some photos of when they transfered Su Lin to the semi wild enclosure near to Wolong.
Su Lin along with 5 other pandas who were bred this year have been release in to semi wild enclosures. These enclosures are a lot bigger than the ones at Bi Feng Xia and the pandas will not interact with humans.
It is hoped that the pregnant Giant Pandas will give birth and bring up their cubs in a more natural way. This is one of the first steps of many of being able to release Giant Pandas back in to the wild.
Recently there has been tremendous rains in the Sichuan Province of China, Which has caused flooding and mud slides.
It appears that at least one wild panda has been killed by the down pour, with it's body being found in the Zipingpu Reservoir.
A local villager found the body on Tuesday morning and reported it to officials, the body was taken for examination where it was found that his lungs were full of water meaning that the Giant Panda had drowned.
Officials and preservation organisations are working closely together to minimise the risk to wild animals at this time.
It with a sad heart that I report that Dong Dong the mother of Bai Yun the female panda mum at San Diego passed away on the 3rd of June.
It is not known how old Dong Dong was when she died as she was born in the wild, it is thought though she was around 30 years old, which is a very good age for a panda.
Rest in peace Dong Dong
Update: Thanks to everyone who noticed I put the wrong month in. I'm sorry if the original title caused any confusion and upset you.
When the team responsible for the building of the new Giant Panda Enclosure, decided to make alterations to the enclosure. They failed to notice that the new plans would need planning permission and so did not apply for it.
Work began on the improvements, when it was later realised that permission was needed, the zoo decided to stop work on the enclosure and submit their plans for building permissions.
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We turn 3 today, and to celebrate I have given the site an new look.
What to you think? Please leave a comment or tweet us about the new design.
Personally I love it, I think it's the best one yet.
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Happy Birthday Panda News, you're looking good at your age.
Andi
May the 12th marks the third anniversary of the Chinese earthquake that killed 100,000 Chinese men, women and children. It also killed 2 captive pandas and an unknown number of wild pandas.
As my story from just a few days ago, the wild pandas are still having a hard time as the earthquake and mudslides soon after killed off their main food source.
It is almost three years since the devastating earthquake hit China on May 12th 2008. Soon afterwards was the rainy season which caused massive mudslides, covering large areas of bamboo in think layers of mud. In some places these bamboo forest are still to recover.
The effect of this means that our favourite animal is having a hard time in the wild, this was brought to light in April when two wild pandas were rescued with extreme starvation, and without the help of the villagers who raised the alarm and the quick response of experts from Bifeng Xia would surely of died.
There are 16 forest reservation areas in Shaanxi Province which contain about 273 Giant Pandas. These areas are isolated from each other by mountains, rivers and man made highways. The pandas within them can not venture to another island, which can cause in-breeding and a higher chance of disease.
The "Shaanxi provincial forest department" have stated that these areas will be connected together by corridors several kilometres wide. They will be formed by planting trees and grasses and building tunnels under highways.
In 1997 a study concluded that a total of 300 captive Giant Pandas were needed to create a self sustaining population.
Last year when a total of 32 surviving panda cubs born this target was breached.
Whilst this is a massive success to the pandas and the panda experts, it was achieved at the risk of inbreeding, as most captive born pandas are descended from only 4 pandas.
When a 7.8 earthquake struck China On May the 8th 2008, it caused wild spread destruction to people and buildings. It also killed two captive pandas (Mao Mao killed in her enclosure under a falling wall, and Xiao Xiao escaped and is presumed dead).
Of the remaining 61 Pandas there were at Wolong on the day all but seven were transferred to other centres with a large number going to Bifeng Xia (Where I spent my time volunteering in Septemeber 2008).
Alison MacLean and two other keepers from Edinburgh Zoo have made their first visit to China to receive training on looking after Giant Pandas.
She said: “It’s a real honour. I’m extremely excited to be working so closely with these precious bears.”
"The training is very similar to how we work with the bears currently at Edinburgh Zoo and I find it essential in caring for such animals. It enables us to work closely and safely with the bears and means we can spot any physical changes quickly."