Am back home now, from seeing the wonderful pandas in Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia. I have plenty of photos and videos to share of my trip. Will just need some time to sort through it all.
Lots to catch up on and thanks to Lee of Facebook, for these two articles that came through this week. Looks like the pair in Taiwan is being prepared so that they may mate naturally and a rare find in the wild with a brown and white panda cub. You can read them in their entirety after the break. Here is the photo of the cub. Awesome.
Rare brown panda cub discovered
by Wang Xiang, 9/11/2009
A RARE brown baby giant panda has been discoverd by researchers in northwest China, according to China Business View today.
The two month old baby has brown fur where normal pandas sport black. The cub still hasn't opened its eyes nor walked, said experts with Foping Giant Panda Reserve in Shaanxi Province.
The baby's mother is a normal color, said Liang Qihui. The brown pandas is the fifth to be recorded in China, he said.
Scientists are still not sure why some rare pandas have brown fur, the report said. The first brown giant pandas was also found in foping in 1985.
Dan Dan was sick when discovered and was taken back to the Panda Study Center. She later gave birth to three normal giant pandas, yet all died young.
The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species and is found only in China.
Source: Shanghai DailyPandas separated to encourage procreation
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 12:24PM GMT 09 Nov 2009
Chinese panda experts charged with encouraging a pair of Taiwanese pandas to procreate are hoping that the adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder will ring as true for bears as it does for humans.
The two pandas, 'Tuan Tuan' and 'Yuan Yuan', were given to Taiwan late last year as a sign of warming ties between the Chinese mainland and Taipei. Somewhat embarrassingly, however, the two bears do not appear to have warmed to each other.
In an attempt to thaw relations, Taipei called in Zhang Hemin, the head of the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Research Centre in southwest China from where the bears originated, to provide expert advice.
His prescription was to lock the two bears in separate cages for several months to see if enforced abstinence could trigger the instinct to procreate, according to an official with the zoo.
"Separation is likely to make Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan more sexually attracted to each other," said the official.
The two bears are under mounting pressure to perform since they have proved popular with the Taiwanese public who are keen to see them produce a baby in their new home.
Pandas are notoriously fussy when it comes to finding mates. Females in the wild normally have a cub once every two to three years, and the fertility of captive giant pandas is even lower.
To increase the chances of success, Mr Zhang also suggested that zookeepers set up wooden racks to encourage Tuan Tuan, the male, to climb and strengthen his leg muscles so that he is in peak condition come the short February mating season.
Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in China's Sichuan province. An additional 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China.
China initially offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005, but the then pro-independence government of Chen Shui-bian rejected the gift. Only after Ma Ying-jeou of the rival Nationalist Party was inaugurated in May last year was the offer accepted.
China and Taiwan are expected to discuss a trade agreement at the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Singapore next week, as a prelude to a partial Free Trade Agreement.
Source: Telegraph.co.UK
