Japan's Only Giant Panda Dies of Old Age » Ueno Zoo

Japan's Only Giant Panda Dies of Old Age
01-05-2008

Discovery News : Discovery Channel

01-05-2008

Are the only not china owned panda's in mexico now? That sucks if they are.

02-05-2008

No more Japnese Pandamonium. That's very unfortanate. Though in 2009 two young pandas will come to Adelaide zoo.

06-05-2008

@PAT: Bao-Bao at Berlin Zoo is still a former Panda "gift".

06-05-2008

Thanks Sun.....If they did breed this panda with a loan panda who owns the baby?

06-05-2008

I don't know in this case but in apparently all Pandas are owned by china, i have no idea why.
In other breeding cases, there are some deals made with zoos that a particular individual is put on breeding loan.
Let me give an example,
Take elephants. Guest cows visit for a particular time say 12 months maybe, but if they are successfully bred they sometimes concieve their baby at the zoo they came from, or in some cases if a cow is bred she will stay at the zoo for long term. This is for the benefit for future breeding.
There are sometimes other cases as well, are you familar with the ayutthaya royal elephants? There was bull from Lampang camp that came to ayutthaya and if he impregnanted cows the claves in future would be sent to Lampang. In the end it was not successful and they resorted to A.I.

Just some examples, not saying that this will happen with the pandas.

08-05-2008

@PAT: Bao Bao's offspring would have been property of China. However, he's 30 now and never showed real interest in reproducing, neither with Tjen Tjen, Ming Ming (whose one ear he mutilated at London) or Yan Yan.
As far as I know, the offspring of the Giant Pandas at Mexico City Zoo went back to China.
In the current Panda "leasing business", the offspring is always property of China.

08-05-2008

Thanks for confirming,
Hope that didn't sound like a platitude

10-05-2008

Surprisingly, it didn't-for once... Nah, don't take it amiss-I'm just pulling Your leg. I'm glad though that You now seem to take my advice to heart...

China "owns" all Giant Pandas as the species is considered a national icon and symbol. Too bad that status didn't help the Baiji-and makes acquiring Snub-Nosed Monkeys so hard...

10-05-2008

Its a good thing that zoos take fond to the breeding of Giant Pandas, there are only 3,000 left!
I think the panda's breeding is strange, ( point me in the right direction if i'm wrong) Twin births aren't umcommon but apparently to many articles on the web say that the mother panda usually abandons one cub and concentrates raising the stronger, healther one, at the time.
The other cub then most likely dies due to stavation since they are abandoned at the time they are just on mother's milk.
Has any zoo hand-reared pandas successfully?

10-05-2008

Actually, it's not zoos that do much of the ex-situ breeding when it comes to Giant Pandas; there are rather breeding facilities in China, like the ones in Chengdu or Wolong, where Giant Pandas are "encouraged" to reproduce in captivity-including AI and hand-rearing cubs (both quite successfully).
Due to that, I don't think there is much to worry about the future of Giant Pandas; there are species like the Javan Warty Pig or the Giant Ibis that are more needy of public interest and protection.

To give birth to several youngs but mosty rear only one successfully isn't something unheard of in nature. In various other animal species, like birds of prey or waterfowl, the "runt of the litter" dies-unless enough food is available; in some species, the "runt" might even serve as dinner for its bigger sibbling ("Cainism", observed in the case of several raptor species). This reproduction system might be considered a way of adaption to changing environments.

10-05-2008

Giant Pandas, you are safe!
Though other species i think could do with better conservation. I think the most endangered animal is the Javan Tiger, Most likely extinct though there are claims that there are 5 left in the wild. Also like their chinese counterparts it might be too late to save the chinese tiger.
The Javan rhino last counted has a population between 50-75. All the ones that live on Java are probably safe, for now because basically all of its population is in a National Park. The ones in Vietnam are seriously threatned only around 30 left and poachers on the loose we could lose them.

Sun Wukong, you are quite right, apprently the panda population is at its highest since a long time and i mean long time

去熊猫！

10-05-2008

There are always rumours about Javan tigers (5? 12? 1? 0? no one knows, no one really cares...) still existing-same is true about Caspian or even Bali tigers, but also Anatolian leopard, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Schomburgk deer (which I do think is genuine) or Kouprey (which I hope is genuine...). It's very hard, if possible at all to determine "the" rarest animal. Lonesome Georg (Geochelone nigra abingdoni) is always quoted as the holder of this unfortunate title, but who knows; after all, some other members of his subspecies might pop up one day or the other.
Iconic tortoise George may not be last of his kind - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)