Panda News from around the world
You may recall that on September 9th 2010 the Giant Panda Long Long at Kobe City Japan died.
Experts flew from Sichuan to Kobe Zoo to examine his body to find the cause of death. It appears that whilst the experts from Kobe Zoo where extracting semen from Long Long, he was sick which stuck in his throat and caused him to choke and die.
Kobe City is expected to pay compensation to China for the death of Long Long in the region of $500,000.
I would like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Sorry once again for no panda updates recently. In the past month I have been out of the country 3 weeks out of the last 4 and working long silly hours.
I do have a list of stories I wish to ley you know about. I plan to write these during my Christmas vacation my New Year resolution is not to spend so much time working and more reporting on panda news stories.
I hope you have a great holiday season and 2011 is the best year for everyone.
Andi
The Scotsman News site is reporting that a pair of pandas will be heading to Edinburgh sometime between September 2011 and March 2012.
The paper reports that the zoo plans to have everything ready by September next year.
Final paperwork is still to be completed and can only be signed by the president or prime minister of China.
Currently there is no news on the Zoo's website, I will check with them and confirm with any more details I find.
This is wonderful news. Now to talk the other in to moving to Edinburgh! :)
On the 19th November 2010 the CCRCGP at Bifengxia hold a double ceremony to show the 16 Giant Panda cubs born there in 2010 and the re-opening of old Leopard Mountain which is now to be known as the panda returnees paradise park.
The new park contains a set of 3 pens containing 7 villas which can accommodate more than 10 sub-adults. This is where Zhen Zhen and Sulin were moved to as mentioned in a previous post.
When I was there, there was only 2 pens, so I'm assuming that another one has been built. I will try to get some more information about this.
Zoo Atlanta have revealed that the only Giant Panda Cub born in America this year to Lun Lun is a boy.
It's reported that the little bloke has a big belly and is already showing his black and white markings. It took veterinarians around two weeks before they could safely examine the cub, away from Lun Lun who is very protective of him.
He is Lun Lun's 3rd cub mate Yang Yang, the first two being Mei Lan and Xi Lan. The cub is yet to be named as Chinese tradition states that a child is not named until they reach 100 days old.
Returnees Zhen Zhen and Su Lin born at San Diego Zoo, America have moved homes, they are now at Leopard Mountain at Bifengxia Panda Research Centre.
They share the area with Fu Long, Mei Sheng and of course Tai Shan. It's a beautiful area of the base, I spent 3 weeks there when I volunteered.
Infra-red cameras were set up in the Clear Water Nature Reserve near Chengdu, Sichuan China set up to capture the inhabitants of the area to help develop and improve conservation strategies.
As experts reviewed over 1,800 photographs of large mammals and birds the camera caught in the act, they were surprised to find photos of a wild giant panda. He was thought that there were no wild giant pandas in the area.
Edinburgh Zoo signed a letter of intent with China to obtain a pair of Giant Pandas over two years ago. There has been a couple of undisclosed problems with the agreement including a re-negotiation of clauses in the agreement after the death of a Giant Panda at a zoo in Japan earlier this year during a routine to extract semen from the panda.
Now Prime Minister David Cameron has been lobbying officials on his recent trip to China.
You have until Midnight on the 21st of November 2010 to help choose a name for the 11 week old cub at Vienna.
The names to choose from are:
Fu Hu 福虎 happy tiger,
Ao Kang 奥康 healthy Austrian boy,
Wei Xing 维兴 Freude Wiens, joy of Vienna
Click on the reference link below to choose your favourite.
In September, three teams of villagers of Pengpu Country in Qingjiang district of Chongqing found 10 pieces of strange stones shaped like bones the day after blasting the area.
Later a total of over 100 pieces were found, experts have been examining the pieces and have come to the conclusion that the bones belong to giant pandas, oriental stegodons and other mammals.
With the two month old Austrian Giant Panda being better able to look after himself, Yang Yang has taken to leaving the cub alone for a couple of hours whilst she goes out and feeds.
The staff at the zoo took this opportunity to weigh him and give him a check over. He now weighs 4.5 KG (a little under 10 lbs) and seems to be in very good health.
Zoo officials have said the public will be able to help choose the cubs name, when they have an online vote.
Vienna is one of the closest zoo's with pandas to where I live and I hope to pay a visit to see him next year.
Lun Lun the female giant panda at Zoo Atlanta give birth to a healthy cub at 5:39am local time November the 3rd.
This is Lun Lun's third cub to be born at Zoo Atlanta. Her first cub Mei Lan was sent to Chengdu, China earlier this year and her second cub Xi Lan can be seen along with the father Yang Yang at Zoo Atlanta.
Well done to Lun Lun and all the staff who look after her and the other pandas at Zoo Atlanta.