On Facebook: On Friday 6th October, one of our volunteers, Sina Graham is hosting a special fundraising dinner. The dinner will raise funds for RZSS to support extending our sun bear enclosure and also Charlie’s Old Codgers Foundation who take care of older pets when their owners can no longer care for them. RZSS works with a range of partners to help conserve Sun Bears, a species that is vulnerable in the wild. Funds raised at this dinner will help to support our work and undertake improvements to the Sun Bear habitat at Edinburgh Zoo. Tickets for this special dinner are priced at £50 per person or £450 for a table of ten. For more information and to book tickets, please contact Sina via her e-mail: [email protected]
Personally I think it's currently one of Edinburgh's better enclosures. The aviaries at the rear of the enclosure were demolished some time ago, so I would assume they will expand the enclosure to the rear to create more space for the bears.
Close encounter with one of the pandas:Edinburgh Zoo Keeper escapes looming giant panda after it's let in by mistake
more on the same story Panda-gate row at Edinburgh Zoo as keeper's narrow escape leaves staff turning on managers
giant pandas are bears and they can be extremely dangerous, especially if a person was trapped in a confined space with one as this girl was. Their favourite method of attack (in humans) seems to be to go for the legs with their jaws, and then use their body to pin the person down while they continue ripping into the legs. Like a wrestler but with crushing teeth. Here's a handy catalogue of panda attacks:December 2016, China That page is for the most recent post from December last year and includes a description of the received injuries: "Wei’s hamstrings, as well as the carpal bones in both of his hands were broken, and nearly a third of his left palm was bitten off." Another from March 2014: "Gaun’s injuries included leg and ankle fractures, as well as severed arteries. He required 7 hours of surgery and a 57 day hospital stay. ... [he] was lucky enough to avoid an amputation, but he may be incapable of working in the future."
..and I believe the moon is made of Cheese Edinburgh Zoo ‘believes giant panda Tian Tian is pregnant’ Edinburgh Zoo panda 'believed to be pregnant' - BBC News
Sky News have also covered it.UK panda Tian Tian believed to be pregnant Also the Koala joey born in January 2017 has ventured out of it's mums pouch for the first time.
More on the Panda pregnancy Tian Tian, Britain's only female giant panda, believed to be pregnant and could give birth today
Interesting they have kept this quiet, no doubt planning if all goes well to announce the birth, and if not, just to carry on as normal (after all the previous hulabaloo). Sounds like someone has tipped off the EEN and they've used FOI with the Scot Govt to get some facts
Tian Tian will not be giving birth today as estimated unfortunately. New information from Times and Star,BBC and AMP suggest that the process could continue into late September.
Visited today: Renovations have begun in the former Barbary Macaque enclosure, no signs up to advise what is going in here Brilliant Birds is still closed, although it looks close to being completed A Lowland Nyala calf has been born, African Plains has been temporarily split into 2 sections, I'm assuming to keep the Grevy's Zebra separate from the calf A Visayan Spotted Deer fawn has been born All in a very nice visit on a mild Sunday morning/afternoon in Edinburgh
I visited Edinburgh for the first time on Wednesday and had a lovely day – we spent six hours there and still didn't (quite) see everything. The hilly landscape is delightful and I envied the chimps their view from up high. We saw the rear end of the male panda, and the koala with her joey – now confirmed as a male, we were told by a volunteer (all the vols were great, by the way). We managed to spot both the Scottish wildcat and also the margay, having a wash-and-brush-up on top of its box. I particularly liked things I hadn't seen before – a pygmy chameleon, mud skippers, young rheas, and the crowned lemurs. And wallabies in the walkthrough, with joeys in pouches. The food was probably the best I've ever had in a zoo (not saying much I know!) – again, helped by very pleasant staff. Excellent day out.
