Pandas Live on

Tai Shan luvs his fruit

You know each zoo provides different types of 'treats' or enrichment items for their pandas, in addition to their regular diet of bamboo. They vary depending on what part of the world you are in.  A few of the different items zoos use are, honey, pieces of fruit, sweet potatoes, leaf eater biscuits, sugar cane and Tai's favorite is his fruitsicle.  This is frozen fruit juice and water, sometimes with cut up fruit. 

 

The National Zoo has a nice write up about the use of enrichment items on their website

MyAngel27 of flickr was visiting the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C, when one of the keepers tossed a fruitsicle to Tai. Look over these wonderful photos that  MyAngel got of Tai enjoying his treat.

 

  

  

 

   

So, the next time you are visiting a giant panda at one of the zoos around the world, look to see what kind of enrichment items the pandas are receiving.

   

Lin Hui caring for her angel

Okay, lets try this again, had to resize the videos/photos to fit in the blog.

Here is the newest video of Lin with her days-old cub at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand, they now are posting these on their YouTube site for the zoo. What is really special about these videos is they also include sound. So often zoos will mute the sound. So enjoy her little squeaks and listen to how her voice changes as she grows!

There are also a couple of cute photos of her holding her little angel.

Photos by Reuters/ChiangMaiZoo/2009

Chengdu Panda Kindergarten

I finally got my flickr video uploader to work but only after I removed it from my computer and just started uploading from their home page.

Here are a couple of videos I captured of a few of the kindergarten class of '08 from the Chengdu panda base. You can catch the pandas in the evenings around 8:00 pm EST on their live webcams.

If you need something to make you smile these guys never fail!

 

Lin Hui with cub

This is from the Chiang Mai Zoo website which also has it posted on YouTube.

This is her first cub and reports today tell us her and the cub are both doing very well. Thanks to the zoo for showing the video. We look forward to seeing more of them together in the coming years.

Also from the Associated Press of YouTube for this video, showing Lin Hui just after giving birth at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand.

Update on Zoo Atlanta ice machine

We have: $1434.54 net total received in Paypal after deductions $1286.17 total received in checks.

 The Zoo has decided that the machine should go in the panda building, so we are working on placement options, approval, and then we will be able to order the machine!

Mary has been busy making the keyrings (inserting the pics) and getting the mailers stuffed. I am working on printing the mailing labels. Mary is currently out of town, but I suspect we will have all the keyrings mailed by the end of next week. We appreciate your patience with them, and I promise they will be sooo stinkin' cute, they will have been worth the wait!

Thanks again for supporting this cause,

Mary and Stacy

   

Thanks to you, Mary and Stacy, for taking the time to put this together!

Tuan and Yuan enjoy 'Zongi'

Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan who live at Zoo Taipei in Taiwan, enjoy a special treat that is part of the Dragon Boat Festival that takes place today in China.   A little of what this festival is about, follows the video that was captured from the CCTV.com website. Thanks, hugwildlife for finding this video for us.

"The Dragon Boat Festival derives from around 300 B.C., when Qu Yuan, a famous minister and poet from the state of Chu, drowned himself in the Miluo River in what is now Hubei province of China. Qu is remembered as a wise and scholarly man who opposed corruption at court, thereby antagonizing other officials, who influenced the emperor to banish him to a remote area.

Qu Yuan continued to try to influence the kingdom, traveling, teaching and writing poetry – works that are now considered masterpieces of ancient Chinese culture. Eventually, when he heard that the Chu state had been defeated by the stronger Qin state, in despair he decided to end his life by flinging himself into the river.

According to popular legend, when local fishermen heard what had happened they raced their boats to the spot he had last been seen, to search for his body. People threw dumplings, eggs and other food into the river for the fish, to prevent them from feeding on the scholar. Thus dragon boats and dumplings became part of commemorative celebrations on the anniversary of his death, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month."   This story was taken from an article titled "Squabbles over the Dragon Boat Festival", on the UPIAsia.com website.

Zoo Madrid Pandas

I just happen to see my link of the Zoo Madrid and thought, I needed to post something about them since it has been awhile.  Here is a video thanks to ParquesReunido who is the owner of the zoo. This shows Bing Xing, the  9 year old male and Hua Zuiba the 6 year old female.

Also,one of my fellow panda friends Jeroen Jacobs who has a great website Giant Panda News has taken some great photos of these two pandas. So be sure to check them out on the link above.

Newborn Panda Cub in Thailand is a female

As we follow-up on the panda that was born yesterday at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Thailand, we find the little one is doing very well and the Chinese officials say we have a little girl!  Sweet.

The visiting Chinese officials were noting that Lin Hui's behavior was leading them to believe she may yet have another cub.  They say we should know something within the next 50 hours.  Interesting. 

"Sophon Damnui, director of the Zoological Park Organization which oversees all zoos in Thailand, says the baby panda "cries very loudly and she breast-feeds from her mother very well." Sophon says panda experts from China have said the cub is in good health and strong."

  Thanks to the Canadian Press for the good news.