Panda News from around the world
Guangzhou is said to be asking the State Forestry Administration (SFA) permission to set up a new Panda Breeding Centre, after the May 12th quakes devastated the Breeding Centre
Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park recently received five more pandas from the Wolong Breeding Centre to look after whilst a new Breeding Centre is created.
Five members from the Wolong Panda Reserve have been out surveying the damage caused by the quake on 12th May,
They found that the quake has caused landslides covering bamboo, tress and panda caves and polluting Panda drinking water. More teams will be sent out un the up coming weeks to obtain reports on other areas of the reserve. With this knowledge experts can work out the best way to help the people and animals of the reserve.
Most of the remaining pandas at the research facility hit by the quake will be moved to other facilities and zoos around China. There will remain there until the new breading centre is built is two to three years.
Seven of the babies born last year will remain at the centre. The reason for the move is that it is still dangerous around there with after shocks still causing mudslides. The panda enclosures are in a bad state and unfit for the pandas.
The animated film about a Panda (Po, voiced by jack black) is due for release in the UK 4th July 2008, with previews showing the week before. I have my tickets for the preview in Manchester, IMAX. I will let you know what I think afterwards.
It has gone on general release in China, after some difficulty over statements made by Steven Spielberg about the Olympics going to china and a campaign in Sichuan stating that the release of the film was insensitive to the survivors of the quake.
The eight infant pandas selected from Wolong Panda Research Centre, have gone on show to the public in Beijing.
Eight pandas selected from 16 who were selected by on-line visitors, have gone on show to the public. The selected pandas were chosen before the quake, but left to go to Beijing a month early because of the disaster. Their keepers went along with them to help them settle in after the stress of the earth quake and the flight.
All pandas seem to be healthy and happy. Ignoring the attention of their fans. The pandas will be in Beijing for about 6 months during the Olympics.
Officials from Edinburgh zoo, were at the Wolong Panda Research Centre, days before the quake hit. To start the process of adopting two breeding pandas to live at Edinburgh zoo. The zoo is planning to start a new breeding program in cooperation with China.
The agreements need to be signed by Gordon Brown and Hu Jintao (The Chinese President), which was to of taken place during the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. It appears that the signing may happen before then and the zoo could receive the pandas before the planned time of April next year.
Mei Xiang Mother to Tian tian at the Washington National Zoo could be soon hearing the patter of little paws. It appears that her progesterone levels are up, which could indicate that she's pregnant .
She gave birth to Tian tian in 2005, but is known for having false pregnancies (Common in pandas). We'll have to wait till mid-July / August when she'll be due, before we know for sure.
After all this bad news we could with a new hope.
The Panda Research Centre at Wolong was just 30km's away from the centre of the earth quake that happened on the 12th of May. The staff there did a wonderful job of rescuing the infant pandas from the nursery and across the rickety bridge to Wolong town.
14 of the 32 panda enclosures were destroyed, and the rest are in a poor state. They are looking in to relocating the centre to a more secure area.
The forests around Wolong are home to approximately 150 wild pandas. The forests have been badly destroyed in the quake and resulting landslides, the Chinese Forestry Commission reports that as much as 80% of the forests have been flattened, which will cause problems for the wild pandas in obtaining enough food. It is thought that 2 / 3 of the wild pandas will die or have died. The mud slides have caused large areas of land to be unreachable by researchers and pandas.
After the recent quake in China, and my expedition to look after the pandas in September, I thought I'd start a blog about news concerning Pandas.
If you have any stories, pictures etc. Please send them to me at pandanews@pandagrove.co.uk