Panda News from around the world
Pambassador Jeroen Jacobs from GiantPandaZoo.com has been visiting Madrid Zoo and had special access to the twins, check the references for a link to his Flickr stream of images of the twins.
Jeroen has supplied quite a few images for me to use for "The Pandas".
Of the four zoos in America that have Giant Pandas, Memphis Zoo is the only zoo that's not yet had a cub. Ya Ya the female Giant Panda there has conceived but so far has been unable to bring it to full term.
It is thought that one of the reasons could be is that she goes in to her estrus cycle in the holiday season which is too early compared to other pandas around the globe, which usually enter the cycle between March and May.
The royal couple of pandas at the Smithsonian Zoo, Washington DC have been granted a leave of stay for another 5 years.
Which means that the couple will stay until December 2015.
It is hoped that the pair will breed again after their first son Tai Shan born in 2005 went to China in February 2010 under terms of the loan agreement between China and the zoo.
Simon Parry from the Daily Mail (UK Newspaper) reports on the time that he dressed in a panda suit to meet the semi wild cub of Cao Cao, and the people responsible for looking after him.
Follow the Reference to read this excellent article.
Vienna has uploaded another video of Fu Hu and his mother Yang Yang exploring his enclosure
On January 10th 2011 at Lancaster House in London, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association sign an agreement which will see a pair of Giant Pandas arriving at Edinburgh Zoo hopefully late this year or early next.
The BBC has reported that the pair Yang Guan (Male) and Tian Tian (Female) both of who were born in 2003 have been chosen to move to Edinburgh.
It has taken nearly 3 years to come for the Zoo and China to come to agreement.
I'll update with more information as soon as I can.
Adorable Fu Hu is exploring even more and that includes over his mum.
Video after the fold.
I've just found a video of Fu Hu of Vienna taking a walk round his enclosure. I thought you might like to see.
2010 was a terrible year for panda deaths, and it didn't end without taking another young panda.
On December 18th 2010 Lang Lang, a 4 year old male cub passed away.
Lang Lang had been suffering from severe seizures for some time, and the treatment he was given did not work. Last year his sister Cui Cui was severely ill and she took a long time to make a full recovery.
The twins at Madrid's Zoo were recently named,Po after the character in Kung Fu Panda who recently adopted the twins and the Dee Dee which was chosen by a vote on the zoo Madrids website.
Sorry I didn't post news about the voting, this came about as I was doing a lot of travelling for work.
On the 23rd of August 2010 Yang Yang of Zoo Austria gave birth to a tiny boy cub. After a poll of visitors to their site the cub was recently named as Fu Hu (Happy Tiger).
These photos were taken at the beginning of December 2010 of Cao Cao and her cub that are currently living in a semi wild environment.
It seems that they are both doing well.