Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Giant Panda shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Giant Panda offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Giant Panda at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Giant Panda? Wrong! If the Giant Panda is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Giant Panda then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Giant Panda? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Giant Panda and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Giant Panda wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Giant Panda then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Giant Panda site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Giant Panda, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Giant Panda, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Taxobox| color = pink| name = Giant Panda
| status = EN| trend = unknown| status_system = iucn3.1| image = Giant_Panda_Washington_DC.JPG| image_width = 250px| image_caption = Panda at National Zoo in Washington, D.C.ia| phylum = [Chordate| classis = Mammalia]| familia = Ursidae| species = A. melanoleuca| binomial = Ailuropoda melanoleuca| binomial_authority = ([Armand David, 1869)]| subdivision =Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca
Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis-->The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, "black-and-white cat-foot"; Chinese: 大熊貓, Hanyu Pinyin: Dàxióngmāo) is a mammal classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central-western and southwestern China. Global Species Programme – Giant panda It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Pandas may eat other foods such as honey, egg (food), fish and yam (vegetable).

The Giant Panda is an endangered animal; an estimated 2,000 pandas live in the wild "Hope for future of giant panda", BBC News, 20-06-2006. Retrieved on 14-02-2007. and over 180 were reported to live in captivity by August 2006 in mainland China Twin pandas give birth to twin cubs in southwest China (another source by the end of 2006 put the figure for China at 221 China has 221 pandas bred in captivity), with twenty pandas living outside of China. Reports show that the numbers of wild panda are on the rise. Giant panda gives birth to giant cub National Geographic

The giant panda is a favorite of the human public, at least partly because many people find that the species has an appealing baby-like cuteness. Also, it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, which adds to its image of innocence. Though giant pandas are often assumed docile because of their cuteness, they have been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than predatory behavior. Research shows that in cases in which its offspring may be under threat, the panda can and often will react violently .

The giant panda is a living fossil.http://www.abc.net.au/tv/btn/stories/s1947589.htm

Description

The Giant Panda has a black-and-white coat. Adults measure around 1.5 m long and around 75 cm tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 115 kg (253 pounds). Females are generally smaller than males, and can occasionally weigh up to 100 kg (220 pounds). Giant Pandas live in mountainous regions, such as Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Tibet. While the Chinese dragon has been historically a national emblem for China, since the latter half of the 20th century the Giant Panda has also become a national emblem for China. Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins.

The Giant Panda has a paw, with Sesamoid bone#Panda anatomy; the "thumb" is actually a modified sesamoid bone, which helps the panda to hold bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about this, then used the title The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History for a book of essays concerned with evolution, punctuated equilibrium, intelligent design, the Piltdown Man hoax, Down's Syndrome, and Bird#Dinosaurs and the origin of birds among others.

It also has a short tail, approximately 15 cm long.

Giant Pandas can usually live to be 20-30 years old in captivity.

Behavior Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone, with males and females meeting only during the breeding season. Recent studies paint a different picture, in which small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season.

Like most subtropical mammals, but unlike most bears, the giant panda does not Hibernation.

Diet in Washington, D.C.Despite its alpha taxonomy classification as a Carnivora, the panda has a diet (nutrition) that is primarily herbivore, which consists almost exclusively of bamboo. However, pandas still have the digestive system of a carnivore and do not have the ability to digest cellulose efficiently, and thus derive little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. The average Giant Panda eats as much as 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo shoots a day. Because pandas consume a diet low in nutrition, it is important that they keep their digestive tract full.

As the average temperature of the region has increased , the panda has pushed its habitat to a higher altitude and limited available space. Furthermore, the timber profit gained from harvesting bamboo has destroyed a significant portion of the food supply for the wild panda. Because of all these elements the population of wild pandas decreased by 50 percent from 1973-1984 in six areas of Asia, all of them in China.

Twenty-five species of bamboo are eaten by pandas in the wild, but it is hard to live in the remains of a forest and feed on dying plants in a rugged landscape. Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less.

Because of the synchronous flowering, death, and regeneration of all bamboo within a species, pandas must have at least two different species available in their range to avoid starvation. The panda's round face is an adaptation to its bamboo diet. Their powerful jaw muscles attach from the top of the head to the jaw. Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material. While primarily herbivorous, the panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the pandas' bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.

Classification For many decades the precise taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the giant panda and the distantly related red panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, genetic testing suggests that giant pandas are true bears and part of the Ursidae family, though they differentiated early in history from the main ursine stock. The giant panda's closest ursine relative is the Spectacled Bear of South America. Disagreement still remains about whether or not the red panda belongs in Ursidae, the raccoon family Procyonidae, or in its own family, Ailuridae.

The red panda and the giant panda, although completely different in appearance, share several features. They both live in the same habitat, they both live on a similar bamboo diet and they both share a unique enlarged bone called the pseudo thumb, which allows them to grip the bamboo shoots they eat.

Subspecies , the baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999Two subspecies of giant panda have been recognized on the basis of distinct cranial measurements, color patterns, and population genetics (Wan et al., 2005).





Uses and human interaction Unlike many other animals in ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures; the mother of Emperor Wen of Han was buried with a panda skull in her tomb. Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill.

The giant panda was first made known to the West in 1869 by the France missionary Armand David, who received a skin from a hunter on 11 March 1869. The first westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., became the first foreigners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su-Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. These activities were halted in 1937 because of wars; and for the next half of the century, the West knew little of pandas.

Panda diplomacy Loans of giant pandas to United States and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between the PRC and the West. This practice has been termed "Panda diplomacy".

By the year 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. The standard loan terms include a fee of up to United States dollar 1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, due to a WWF lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only allows a U.S. zoo to import a panda if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation movement efforts for wild pandas and their habitat.

In May 2005, the People's Republic of China offered Taiwan (Republic of China) two pandas as a gift. This proposed gift was met by polarized opinions from Taiwan due to complications stemming from cross-strait relations. As of September, 2007, Taiwan has not accepted the offer. Trial marriages for Taiwan pandas. BBC News. October 13, 2005. Retrieved August 4, 2007.

Conservation Giant pandas are an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity.

Pandas have been a target for poaching by locals since ancient times, and by foreigners since they were introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demands for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.Though the Wolong National Nature Reserve was set up by the PRC government in 1958 to save the declining panda population, few advances in the conservation of pandas were made, due to inexperience and insufficient knowledge of ecology. Many believed that the best way to save the pandas was to cage them. As a result, pandas were caged at any sign of decline, and suffered from terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with segregation due to caging, reproduction of wild pandas was severely limited. In the 1990s, however, several laws (including gun controls and the removal of resident humans from the reserves) helped the chances of survival for pandas. With these renewed efforts and improved conservation methods, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers in some areas, even though they still are classified as a rare species.

In 2006, scientists reported that the number of pandas living in the wild may have been underestimated at about 1,000. Previous population surveys had used conventional methods to estimate the size of the wild panda population, but using a new method that analyzes DNA from panda Feces, scientists believe that the wild panda population may be as large as 3,000. Although the species is still endangered, it is thought that the conservation efforts are working. As of 2006, there were 40 panda reserves in China, compared to just 13 reserves two decades ago.

The giant panda is among the world's most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, located in the southwest Sichuan province and covering 7 natural reserves, were inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2006. Pandas gain world heritage status BBC News Panda sanctuaries now World Heritage sites United Press International

Reproduction Contrary to popular belief, Giant pandas do not reproduce slowly. Studies have shown that wild pandas reproduce as well as North American brown bears. A female panda may have 2-3 cubs in a lifetime, on average. Growth is slow and pandas may not reach sexual maturity until five to seven years of age. The mating season usually takes place from mid-March to mid-May. During this time, two to five males can compete for one female; the male with the highest rank gets the female. When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from thirty seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization.

The whole gestation period ranges from 83 to 163 days, with 135 days being the average. Baby pandas weigh only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 to 4.6 ounces), which is about 1/900th of the mother’s weight. Usually, the female panda gives birth to one or two panda cubs. Since baby pandas are born very small and helpless, they need the mother’s undivided attention, so she is able to care for only one of her cubs. She usually abandons one of her cubs, and it dies soon after birth. At this time, scientists do not know how the female chooses which cub to raise, and this is a topic of ongoing research. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.

When the cub is first born, it is pink, furless and blind. It nurses from its mother's breast 6 to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the panda cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A slight pink color may appear on the panda's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub’s fur is fully developed. A cub's fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 90 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs are able to eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (99.2 pounds) at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.

Breeders and biologists often experience difficulty in inducing captive pandas to mate, threatening their already diminished population. This problem may stem from the captive bears' lack of experience. In an attempt to remedy this, some keepers in China and Thailand have shown their subjects panda pornography. In some cases, the bears have been sufficiently stimulated from the videos to engage in reproductive activity. It is not likely that the animals actually learn mating behaviors from the video; rather, scientists believe that hearing the associated sounds has a stimulating effect on the bears exposed to it.

Name The name "panda" originates with a Himalayan language, possibly Nepali language. As used in the Western world the name was originally applied to the red panda. Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as Mottled Bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or Particolored Bear.

The Chinese language name for the giant panda, 大熊貓, literally translates to "large bear cat," or just "bear cat" (熊貓).

Most bears' eyes have round pupils. The exception is the giant panda, whose pupils are vertical slits like cats' eyes. These unusual eyes, combined with its ability to effortlessly scale trees, are what inspired the Chinese to call the panda the "large bear cat."

Pandas in zoos on 1964 Soviet Union 2 kopeks postal stamp

A 2006 New York Times article outlined the economics of keeping pandas, which costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos must pay the Chinese government $1 million a year in fees, as part of a typically ten-year contract. San Diego's contract with China is the first to expire, in 2008. The last contract, in Memphis, ends in 2013.

North America As of early 2007, five major North American zoos have giant pandas: On September 14, 2007, Meg Sutherland-Smith of San Diego Zoo, announced that the 6-week-old panda cub is female, the 4th giant panda born at the zoo (all to Bai Yun, 16 and Gao Gao). According to Chinese custom, she will be named at 100 days old. Yahoo.com, Panda cub born at San Diego Zoo is girl

Notable North American-born pandas

Europe ’s zoo Tiergarten Schönbrunn

Three zoos in Europe show giant pandas:

London Zoo, Moscow and Paris no longer have pandas.

Asia

Pandas in Japan have double names: a Japanese name and a Chinese name. Three zoos in Japan show giant pandas:



Australia

Pandas on television The first sequences of pandas in the wild were shot by Franz Camenzind for American Broadcasting Company in about 1982. They were bought by BBC Natural History Unit for their weekly magazine show Nature.

Recently NHNZ has featured pandas in two documentaries. Panda Nursery (2006) featured China’s Wolong Nature Reserve in the mountains in Sichuan Province, forty giant pandas and a dedicated team of staff play a crucial role in ensuring the survival of the species. As part of the Reserve’s panda breeding programme, a revolutionary new method of rearing twin cubs called ‘swap-raising’ has been developed. Each cub is raised by both its natural mother and one of the Reserve’s veterinarians, Wei Rongping, to increase the chances of both cubs surviving. Growing Up: Giant Panda (2003) featured Chengdu Giant Panda Center in south-west China as one of the best in the world. But with female pandas' short fertility cycles and low birth rates, raising the captive panda population is an uphill battle.

In Hong Kong, there is now a Panda Channel on Now Broadband TV for citizens in Hong Kong to watch the four giant pandas in Ocean Park Hong Kong directly through their broadband TV decoders. An Internet live is also available on the Panda Channel Website for people worldwide to watch the giant pandas through four cameras individually.

See also

Footnotes

References

External links



{{Taxobox| color = pink| name = Giant Panda
| status = EN| trend = unknown| status_system = iucn3.1| image = Giant_Panda_Washington_DC.JPG| image_width = 250px| image_caption = Panda at National Zoo in Washington, D.C.ia| phylum = [Chordate| classis = Mammalia]| familia = Ursidae| species = A. melanoleuca| binomial = Ailuropoda melanoleuca| binomial_authority = ([Armand David, 1869)]| subdivision =Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca
Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis-->The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, "black-and-white cat-foot"; Chinese: 大熊貓, Hanyu Pinyin: Dàxióngmāo) is a mammal classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central-western and southwestern China. Global Species Programme – Giant panda It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Pandas may eat other foods such as honey, egg (food), fish and yam (vegetable).

The Giant Panda is an endangered animal; an estimated 2,000 pandas live in the wild "Hope for future of giant panda", BBC News, 20-06-2006. Retrieved on 14-02-2007. and over 180 were reported to live in captivity by August 2006 in mainland China Twin pandas give birth to twin cubs in southwest China (another source by the end of 2006 put the figure for China at 221 China has 221 pandas bred in captivity), with twenty pandas living outside of China. Reports show that the numbers of wild panda are on the rise. Giant panda gives birth to giant cub National Geographic

The giant panda is a favorite of the human public, at least partly because many people find that the species has an appealing baby-like cuteness. Also, it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, which adds to its image of innocence. Though giant pandas are often assumed docile because of their cuteness, they have been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than predatory behavior. Research shows that in cases in which its offspring may be under threat, the panda can and often will react violently .

The giant panda is a living fossil.http://www.abc.net.au/tv/btn/stories/s1947589.htm

Description

The Giant Panda has a black-and-white coat. Adults measure around 1.5 m long and around 75 cm tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 115 kg (253 pounds). Females are generally smaller than males, and can occasionally weigh up to 100 kg (220 pounds). Giant Pandas live in mountainous regions, such as Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Tibet. While the Chinese dragon has been historically a national emblem for China, since the latter half of the 20th century the Giant Panda has also become a national emblem for China. Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins.

The Giant Panda has a paw, with Sesamoid bone#Panda anatomy; the "thumb" is actually a modified sesamoid bone, which helps the panda to hold bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about this, then used the title The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History for a book of essays concerned with evolution, punctuated equilibrium, intelligent design, the Piltdown Man hoax, Down's Syndrome, and Bird#Dinosaurs and the origin of birds among others.

It also has a short tail, approximately 15 cm long.

Giant Pandas can usually live to be 20-30 years old in captivity.

Behavior Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone, with males and females meeting only during the breeding season. Recent studies paint a different picture, in which small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season.

Like most subtropical mammals, but unlike most bears, the giant panda does not Hibernation.

Diet in Washington, D.C.Despite its alpha taxonomy classification as a Carnivora, the panda has a diet (nutrition) that is primarily herbivore, which consists almost exclusively of bamboo. However, pandas still have the digestive system of a carnivore and do not have the ability to digest cellulose efficiently, and thus derive little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. The average Giant Panda eats as much as 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo shoots a day. Because pandas consume a diet low in nutrition, it is important that they keep their digestive tract full.

As the average temperature of the region has increased , the panda has pushed its habitat to a higher altitude and limited available space. Furthermore, the timber profit gained from harvesting bamboo has destroyed a significant portion of the food supply for the wild panda. Because of all these elements the population of wild pandas decreased by 50 percent from 1973-1984 in six areas of Asia, all of them in China.

Twenty-five species of bamboo are eaten by pandas in the wild, but it is hard to live in the remains of a forest and feed on dying plants in a rugged landscape. Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less.

Because of the synchronous flowering, death, and regeneration of all bamboo within a species, pandas must have at least two different species available in their range to avoid starvation. The panda's round face is an adaptation to its bamboo diet. Their powerful jaw muscles attach from the top of the head to the jaw. Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material. While primarily herbivorous, the panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the pandas' bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.

Classification For many decades the precise taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the giant panda and the distantly related red panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, genetic testing suggests that giant pandas are true bears and part of the Ursidae family, though they differentiated early in history from the main ursine stock. The giant panda's closest ursine relative is the Spectacled Bear of South America. Disagreement still remains about whether or not the red panda belongs in Ursidae, the raccoon family Procyonidae, or in its own family, Ailuridae.

The red panda and the giant panda, although completely different in appearance, share several features. They both live in the same habitat, they both live on a similar bamboo diet and they both share a unique enlarged bone called the pseudo thumb, which allows them to grip the bamboo shoots they eat.

Subspecies , the baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999Two subspecies of giant panda have been recognized on the basis of distinct cranial measurements, color patterns, and population genetics (Wan et al., 2005).





Uses and human interaction Unlike many other animals in ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures; the mother of Emperor Wen of Han was buried with a panda skull in her tomb. Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill.

The giant panda was first made known to the West in 1869 by the France missionary Armand David, who received a skin from a hunter on 11 March 1869. The first westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., became the first foreigners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su-Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. These activities were halted in 1937 because of wars; and for the next half of the century, the West knew little of pandas.

Panda diplomacy Loans of giant pandas to United States and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between the PRC and the West. This practice has been termed "Panda diplomacy".

By the year 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. The standard loan terms include a fee of up to United States dollar 1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, due to a WWF lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only allows a U.S. zoo to import a panda if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation movement efforts for wild pandas and their habitat.

In May 2005, the People's Republic of China offered Taiwan (Republic of China) two pandas as a gift. This proposed gift was met by polarized opinions from Taiwan due to complications stemming from cross-strait relations. As of September, 2007, Taiwan has not accepted the offer. Trial marriages for Taiwan pandas. BBC News. October 13, 2005. Retrieved August 4, 2007.

Conservation Giant pandas are an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity.

Pandas have been a target for poaching by locals since ancient times, and by foreigners since they were introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demands for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.Though the Wolong National Nature Reserve was set up by the PRC government in 1958 to save the declining panda population, few advances in the conservation of pandas were made, due to inexperience and insufficient knowledge of ecology. Many believed that the best way to save the pandas was to cage them. As a result, pandas were caged at any sign of decline, and suffered from terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with segregation due to caging, reproduction of wild pandas was severely limited. In the 1990s, however, several laws (including gun controls and the removal of resident humans from the reserves) helped the chances of survival for pandas. With these renewed efforts and improved conservation methods, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers in some areas, even though they still are classified as a rare species.

In 2006, scientists reported that the number of pandas living in the wild may have been underestimated at about 1,000. Previous population surveys had used conventional methods to estimate the size of the wild panda population, but using a new method that analyzes DNA from panda Feces, scientists believe that the wild panda population may be as large as 3,000. Although the species is still endangered, it is thought that the conservation efforts are working. As of 2006, there were 40 panda reserves in China, compared to just 13 reserves two decades ago.

The giant panda is among the world's most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, located in the southwest Sichuan province and covering 7 natural reserves, were inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2006. Pandas gain world heritage status BBC News Panda sanctuaries now World Heritage sites United Press International

Reproduction Contrary to popular belief, Giant pandas do not reproduce slowly. Studies have shown that wild pandas reproduce as well as North American brown bears. A female panda may have 2-3 cubs in a lifetime, on average. Growth is slow and pandas may not reach sexual maturity until five to seven years of age. The mating season usually takes place from mid-March to mid-May. During this time, two to five males can compete for one female; the male with the highest rank gets the female. When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from thirty seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization.

The whole gestation period ranges from 83 to 163 days, with 135 days being the average. Baby pandas weigh only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 to 4.6 ounces), which is about 1/900th of the mother’s weight. Usually, the female panda gives birth to one or two panda cubs. Since baby pandas are born very small and helpless, they need the mother’s undivided attention, so she is able to care for only one of her cubs. She usually abandons one of her cubs, and it dies soon after birth. At this time, scientists do not know how the female chooses which cub to raise, and this is a topic of ongoing research. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.

When the cub is first born, it is pink, furless and blind. It nurses from its mother's breast 6 to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the panda cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A slight pink color may appear on the panda's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub’s fur is fully developed. A cub's fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 90 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs are able to eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (99.2 pounds) at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.

Breeders and biologists often experience difficulty in inducing captive pandas to mate, threatening their already diminished population. This problem may stem from the captive bears' lack of experience. In an attempt to remedy this, some keepers in China and Thailand have shown their subjects panda pornography. In some cases, the bears have been sufficiently stimulated from the videos to engage in reproductive activity. It is not likely that the animals actually learn mating behaviors from the video; rather, scientists believe that hearing the associated sounds has a stimulating effect on the bears exposed to it.

Name The name "panda" originates with a Himalayan language, possibly Nepali language. As used in the Western world the name was originally applied to the red panda. Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as Mottled Bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or Particolored Bear.

The Chinese language name for the giant panda, 大熊貓, literally translates to "large bear cat," or just "bear cat" (熊貓).

Most bears' eyes have round pupils. The exception is the giant panda, whose pupils are vertical slits like cats' eyes. These unusual eyes, combined with its ability to effortlessly scale trees, are what inspired the Chinese to call the panda the "large bear cat."

Pandas in zoos on 1964 Soviet Union 2 kopeks postal stamp

A 2006 New York Times article outlined the economics of keeping pandas, which costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos must pay the Chinese government $1 million a year in fees, as part of a typically ten-year contract. San Diego's contract with China is the first to expire, in 2008. The last contract, in Memphis, ends in 2013.

North America As of early 2007, five major North American zoos have giant pandas: On September 14, 2007, Meg Sutherland-Smith of San Diego Zoo, announced that the 6-week-old panda cub is female, the 4th giant panda born at the zoo (all to Bai Yun, 16 and Gao Gao). According to Chinese custom, she will be named at 100 days old. Yahoo.com, Panda cub born at San Diego Zoo is girl

Notable North American-born pandas

Europe ’s zoo Tiergarten Schönbrunn

Three zoos in Europe show giant pandas:

London Zoo, Moscow and Paris no longer have pandas.

Asia

Pandas in Japan have double names: a Japanese name and a Chinese name. Three zoos in Japan show giant pandas:



Australia

Pandas on television The first sequences of pandas in the wild were shot by Franz Camenzind for American Broadcasting Company in about 1982. They were bought by BBC Natural History Unit for their weekly magazine show Nature.

Recently NHNZ has featured pandas in two documentaries. Panda Nursery (2006) featured China’s Wolong Nature Reserve in the mountains in Sichuan Province, forty giant pandas and a dedicated team of staff play a crucial role in ensuring the survival of the species. As part of the Reserve’s panda breeding programme, a revolutionary new method of rearing twin cubs called ‘swap-raising’ has been developed. Each cub is raised by both its natural mother and one of the Reserve’s veterinarians, Wei Rongping, to increase the chances of both cubs surviving. Growing Up: Giant Panda (2003) featured Chengdu Giant Panda Center in south-west China as one of the best in the world. But with female pandas' short fertility cycles and low birth rates, raising the captive panda population is an uphill battle.

In Hong Kong, there is now a Panda Channel on Now Broadband TV for citizens in Hong Kong to watch the four giant pandas in Ocean Park Hong Kong directly through their broadband TV decoders. An Internet live is also available on the Panda Channel Website for people worldwide to watch the giant pandas through four cameras individually.

See also

Footnotes

References

External links





The Giant Panda
photograph of a giant panda chewing bamboo

The Giant Panda : Ailuropoda melanoleuca
photograph of a giant panda by a tree ... G I A N T - P A N D A . C O M The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) first appeared in the evolutionary record during the late ...

BBC - Science & Nature - Wildfacts - Giant panda
Photographs, audio clip, and fact sheet from BBC Online.

WWF - Giant panda
Common Name : Giant panda; Panda Géant (Fr); Panda gigante (Sp); Scientific Name : Ailuropoda melanoleuca : Habitat : Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests

Brighter future for giant panda?
Scientists double estimate of panda population ... Brighter future for giant panda? 20 June 2006   Scientists at Cardiff University, using a novel method to estimate population ...

Giant Panda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, "black-and-white cat-foot"; traditional Chinese: 大熊貓; simplified Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: Dàxióngmāo; literally: "big bear cat ...

Generation5 Forum - Giant panda
Related Posts ; Blogroll ; Meta. RSS; Valid XHTML; Comments. Schwartz's permitted operations introduce that giant panda doctors have greater international status than those of any ...

WWF-UK: Giant panda
Access key details. This site uses the UK government standard access keys, as shown below: S - Skip navigation 1 - Home page 2 - What's new 3 - Site map

WWF-UK: Giant Panda
The panda is a carnivore that has adapted to being a vegetarian. It lives on bamboo, which has very little nutritional value - so to obtain enough nourishment the animal has to eat ...

Giant Panda Program - China - Destinations - Greenforce
BE A Giant Panda Volunteer ! Beijing - the Forbidden City, Great Wall of China, Ming Tombs. Option to learn Mandarin ; Work with these amazing protected species - from one week...

 

Giant Panda



 
Copyright © 2008 Hintcenter.com - All rights reserved.
Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
All Trademarks belong to their repective owners. Many aspects of this page are used under
commercial commons license from Yahoo!