The Bifengxia panda base officially showed off the 16 cubs that were born this year at the base on November 19, 2010 and at the same time announced the opening of a a new living area that they will use to house returning pandas from abroad to better enable them to observe how they are adjusting to their new environment.
As a side note, many of you have asked about Tai Shan's live cam that was announced by Pandas International a few months back, so this may explain why we haven't heard anything about it, seeing that he has moved to this new area. Unfortunately, I still haven't heard anything new on a cam for Tai or any of the other pandas that are in this new area. As soon as anything develops, I will let you know.
Two articles follow below about the new living area.
Thanks to Xi Shan of flickr and hugwildlife of YouTube, for sending me these articles when they first came out.
Congratulations to the base for the success of 16 panda cubs born this year.
"The "Paradise for Overseas-Born Pandas," a cluster of new pens at Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base in Ya'an City, in a clearing away from other panda houses, can accommodate more than 10 pandas."
Returned pandas from abroad move into new homes in SW China
November 19, 2010
Six giant pandas who were born and grew up abroad before returning to their ancestral home in China moved into new pens Friday at a research center in the southwestern Sichuan Province.
The "Paradise for Overseas-Born Pandas," a cluster of new pens at Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base in Ya'an City, in a clearing away from other panda houses, can accommodate more than 10 pandas.
Among the first inhabitants were five U.S.-born pandas -- Su Lin, Zhen Zhen, Tai Shan, Hua Mei and Mei Sheng -- and Austrian-born Fu Long, said Tang Chunxiang, a researcher at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center.
Hua Mei, the first U.S.-born panda, returned to China in 2004.
The most recent returnees, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen, arrived in September.
Tang said separate living quarters for the pandas would enable researchers to observe more closely how each was getting along in a new environment.
The Wolong center has sent 14 giant pandas overseas for joint breeding programs since the first one traveled to San Diego, the United States, in 1996. Peoples Daily Online
Paradise open to returned pandas English.news.cn 2010-11-20 08:38:06
BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- It was foggy and cold on Friday morning at the Bifengxia Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Ya'an, Sichuan province.
But the 100 people attending the ceremony marking the completion of the "paradise for overseas returned pandas" and the debut of 16 panda cubs born this year were in a festive mood.
They cheered when the ceremony began at 10 am and the 16 panda cubs accompanied by their keepers arrived.
Held by their keepers, the cubs whose average age was less than 6 months had a group photo taken with representatives from the embassies of Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Austria, Japan and Australia as well as those from the Kobe City Oji Zoo in Japan, Schoenbrunn Zoo in Austria and Adelaide Zoo in Australia.
As the center has overcome three hurdles hindering the expansion of the captive panda population - it is difficult for pandas to become ruttish, then pregnant and for their newborn to survive - it has witnessed the birth of 175 cubs in the past two decades, according to the center's Deputy Chief Li Desheng.
He said 154 of them survived and the center is home to 165 captive pandas.
Since the center sent the first panda to the San Diego Zoo in the US for scientific research in 1996, it has established ties of cooperation with zoos in the US, Japan, Thailand, Austria, Australia and Singapore.
Pandas from the center gave birth to 13 cubs overseas and nine survived, Li said.
The center recently finished rebuilding seven dens which can hold more than 10 pandas and renamed them "paradise for overseas returned pandas".
"The dens, which have the same facilities as those for other pandas, are so named because we hope all the six pandas which have returned from overseas can adapt to the environment in the center," Li said.
The six pandas living in the "paradise" include Hua Mei, Mei Sheng, Tai Shan, Fu Long, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen.
Born in the San Diego Zoo in August 1999, Hua Mei, female, returned home in March 2004. She was the first panda born overseas to return to China.
Born in the San Diego Zoo in August 2003, Mei Sheng was the first panda conceived overseas through natural sex. He returned in November 2007.
(Source: China Daily)