There are only 4 zoos in the United States that house Giant Pandas, and these are all rented from China, on a temporary basis. The lease on the pandas in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. expires next year, leaving everyone wondering if the agreement can be reinstated so that visitors can see these beautiful bears for a longer period of time. These bears are critically endangered as a species, with only 1,600 Giant Pandas estimated still living in the wild. Expense for these rare bears at the National Zoo is high. Rental fees on the bears total $1,000,000 per year, and add to that the large tailored exhibits and the cost of care and food, and the price tag to show pandas is nearly impossible. The other U.S. zoos that house Giant Pandas are in the cities of Atlanta, San Diego, and Memphis. It is estimated that these four zoos lose have lost over $40 million just from 2001 to 2003, when you look at the cost to maintain the bears versus the revenue at zoo gates. However, through generous donations the loss is now just under $4 million, still a difficult figure to justify. The birth of a baby panda at a U.S. zoo always helps to pay for the pandas, since the number of visitors always increases drastically when there is a baby panda to see. However, each time a baby panda is born in a U.S. zoo, a separate payment of $600,000 to China must also be made. All payments to China go to conservation efforts to restore panda natural habitat.

Courtesy of www.covebear.com

One day after its announcement that passenger tickets would be sold for the flight carrying two giant pandas from Sichuan Province, EVA Air yesterday canceled the sale of the tickets. An EVA staffer who requested anonymity told the Taipei Times that the decision was made following complaints from animal rights groups, who said giant pandas are shy animals and could be frightened by crowds who wish to look at them. Based on the concerns, the airline canceled its plans, she said.



Six travel agencies authorized to sell the tickets stopped sales yesterday morning.All of them said they had received calls requesting information about the tickets, which were part of a packaged tour. EZ Travel said it had received approximately 30 orders for the two-day trip yesterday morning. The tickets had been priced at $3,999 per person.



“We believe that they [travel agencies] will understand that we are doing this to protect the animals,” the airlines staffer said. The airline will dispatch a Boeing 747-400 with a maximum capacity of 276 passengers to bring the pandas to Taiwan. In addition to Taiwanese and Chinese caretakers for the pandas and government officials, another 100 passengers would have been allowed on board if the tickets had been sold. The aircraft will be grounded for cleaning and inspections on Friday and will leave for Sichuan next week.

By Shelley Shan

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SHANGHAI — Scientists in China may use a police dog to teach pandas to fight after the first artificially bred panda released into the wild was apparently killed after a battle with other animals, local media reported on Saturday.

The Wolong giant panda breeding centre plans to have four pandas raised in captivity live with a specially trained police dog or other animals, the Chengdu Daily quoted reserve officials as saying. The officials could not be reached for comment.

The pandas would learn how to protect themselves by observing the dog, increasing their chances of survival when they were eventually released into the mountainous wilds of the far western province of Sichuan.

The world's first artificially bred panda to be released, a 5-year-old male named Xiang Xiang, was found dead in the snow early this year after less than 12 months out of captivity.

Scientists believe he fell from a high place after getting into a fight with wild pandas or other animals over food or territory.

China is now preparing to release a second batch of up to four artificially bred pandas. Many or all would be females, which may be less prone to becoming involved in fights.

Breeding pandas through artificial insemination and introducing them to the wild is an important part of China's efforts to save the species, which is now estimated to number between 1,000 and 2,000 in the wild.

Pandas chosen for release undergo years of training. Adult pandas need to spend up to 16 hours a day foraging and eating bamboo and almost all the remaining time resting or sleeping, making them vulnerable in harsh environments.

To boost captive pandas' low fertility rates and weak sexual desire, China has even resorted to showing them videos of other pandas mating.

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Panda Demands Abortion

SAN DIEGO – Step right up and name the baby panda. The San Diego Zoo is asking visitors to suggest names for the female panda born August 3rd. Starting Sunday, Oct. 5, zoo guests have 10 days to submit names for the newborn. Suggestions should be in Chinese (using the English alphabet, not Chinese characters), have an English translation and be symbolic in meaning.

The zoo's panda team will choose several names from those suggested and the semi-finalists will be reviewed by the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association.

The approved finalists will be posted later this month on the zoo's Web site, www.sandiegozoo.org, for a final vote by the public, zoo officials said.
This is a new twist on naming pandas. In 1999, China named the zoo's first cub Hua Mei, or “China USA.” San Diego zoo officials named the second cub, born in 2003, Mei Sheng or “Born in the USA.” In 2005, five names were posted on the Internet for public voting. Su Lin, or “A little bit of something very cute,” was the winning name.

Tags: Baby Panda

At the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve, a baby boom is in full swing. Panda "kindergarten," which is where the 1-year olds hang out, is at capacity. And healthy newborns are arriving in the nursery almost weekly. But now, China is guarding its precious national treasures like never before.
For more than a thousand years, the Chinese have given giant pandas away as a gesture of goodwill. Beijing even sealed the new Chinese-American relationship in 1972 with President Nixon, presenting the gift of Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling. Today, the director at Wolong says the custom is over. "We only lend pandas for the purpose of breeding and biological research with foreign countries," he says.
These guys aren't just pawns in a political game anymore, they're cash cows. They can fetch up to a million dollars a year if lent out to an American zoo. And if they give birth while they're overseas, as in the case of Bai Yun who had a cub this month at the San Diego Zoo, China charges extra. While some have accused Beijing of profiteering, the director insists the money goes to panda preservation. Twenty years ago, there were only 13 nature reserves in China, now there are 59. And, while still endangered, the number of pandas in the wild is back up to what it was in the 1970s.
Though no longer official ambassadors, the pandas haven't lost their symbolism. When U.S. Envoy Robert Zoellick hugged a panda during his visit to China last year, it was interpreted as a desire for more engagement with Beijing. On the flip side, Taiwan's refusal to accept pandas signifies its estrangement from mainland China.
Either way, the pandas don't seem to mind. They're happy remaining completely oblivious to their role in history.
Story by ABC News
1:05 P.M. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2007

Tags: China, Panda Bears

The Atlanta Zoo has planned a series of activities, ending Saturday, to make sure this birthday doesn't pass unnoticed:

Monday, visitors to the zoo are welcome to sign a birthday banner, which will wave over the exhibit the cub shares with her parents, Lun Lun and Yang Yang. It will hang all week, giving folks plenty of time to write their best wishes on it.

The zoo also will have a daily series of question-and-answer sessions in which the people who look after the zoo's pandas meet zoo-goers who may be curious about Ailuropoda melanoleuca, the giant panda. The meetings take place outside the panda exhibit at 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. Mei Lan also will be given some sort of present — a toy, a treat, maybe both — every day.

On Tuesday, Paint the Panda, a series of panda-themed artwork submitted by youngsters across metro Atlanta goes on display. The exhibit, sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta and the zoo, featuring more than 75 paintings. It debuts at 6 p.m.

On Thursday, her birthday, the zoo has planned an 11 a.m. party for the cub. Humans get cake.

That evening, the zoo is hosting a sold-out reception focusing on highlights of the cub's first year. The gathering also features a special panda viewing.

On Saturday, the last day of the celebration, the zoo hosts Asian Sunset Safari, a 2 1/2-hour-long celebration of China, the pandas' homeland, and other animals of Asia. It's free for members and children under 3; $10 for nonmember adults and $5 for nonmember children.

Log on to www.zooatlanta.org for more information.

By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/03/07

Tags: Panda Cub, Birthday

VIENNA, Austria - The giant panda cub born in an Austrian zoo was actually a twin, but its sibling died, the zoo said Friday.

Staff at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo detected the tiny carcass late Thursday while monitoring the mother, Yang Yang, and her newborn through a surveillance camera, zoologist Regina Pfistermueller said. "It took awhile until we saw it," Pfistermueller said, adding that zookeepers waited until Friday to retrieve the dead cub to avoid stressing Yang Yang.

It was unclear if the cub was stillborn or if it died shortly after birth, Pfistermueller said, adding that at 3.1 ounces it had virtually no chance of survival. The healthy cub, yet unnamed, weighed an estimated 3.5 ounces.

Zookeepers were caught off-guard Thursday when they heard unusual noises coming from an enclosed area to which Yang Yang had retreated. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that she had given birth to a cub — the first born in Europe in 25 years. Zookeepers had not been certain Yang Yang was pregnant because an Aug. 6 ultrasound had not shown any signs of it.

Thursday's surprise delivery occurred 127 days after Yang Yang mated with the male panda Long Hui. Both are in Austria on loan from China. The cubs were conceived naturally.

The last time pandas were born in Europe was in Madrid in 1982, the zoo said on its Web site. A panda gave birth to twin cubs through artificial insemination.

Tags: Panda Cub

BEIJING - Four pandas were born in captivity in China on the same day, a rare occurrence after 34 were born in all of last year, state media reported Tuesday.
Xinhua News Agency earlier reported that three pandas had been born, but later said that Eryatou, who had delivered a female baby on Monday evening at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan province, later gave birth to a second female baby.
Earlier on Monday, Jiaozi gave birth to a male and a female at the same center.
Chinese panda breeding centers now have reported 14 cubs born so far this year, with nine at the Chengdu center and the others at the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, Xinhua said.
The panda is one of the rarest animals, with an estimated 1,590 living in the wild. Another 210 have been bred in captivity, Xinhua said.
Of the 34 pandas born by artificial insemination in 2006, 30 survived. Both were record figures, Xinhua said.

Tags: Panda Cub

Bai Yun gave birth to a single cub today following a 2.5-hour labor. Animal care staff observed the birth at 1:31 p.m. via a closed-circuit camera installed at the Giant Panda Research Station birthing den. This is a delicate period for the cub, but Bai Yun is an experienced mother and the Giant Panda Team will be monitoring the pair around the clock. The Zoo's Panda Cam will provide a sneak peek into the den within the next 24 hours.

Watch the Panda Cam here.

Tags: Panda Cub

A seven-year-old giant panda gave birth to twin cubs on Monday afternoon in a panda research center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The cubs, one male and one female, were born between 5:50 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. Weighing 200 grams and 176 grams respectively, they are considered overweight compared with other newborns, according to Zhang Zhihe, director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center.
Seven-year-old "Chengji" was a first-time mother and she was exhausted after 15 hours of labor that began early Monday morning, the center said. Panda keepers removed one cub and placed it in an incubator because a mother is usually only able to nurse one cub at a time. The twins will be swapped every four hours to ensure that both are well fed and taken care of.

It was the second twin birth in a month after another pair of twin cubs was born at the center on July 5. On June 30, a 21-year-old giant panda gave birth to a female cub, a rare feat given pandas normally breed between the ages of four and twenty. China made a major breakthrough in artificial panda breeding in the 1990s, with the number of newborn captive cubs rising from nine in 2000 to more than 20 last year.

The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in southwest China. Another 200 have been bred in captivity.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2007)  

Tags: Panda Cub