No more Japnese Pandamonium. That's very unfortanate. Though in 2009 two young pandas will come to Adelaide zoo.
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.
@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.
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...
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?
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.
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！
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)
I was fortunate to see Ling Ling a week before he died. I had always wanted to see a Giant Panda, and the visit to the zoo was planned because of his presence. Hearing he'd passed away just after our visit made me sad but value my experience all the more. I remember thinking that he was quite lethargic, sleepy, and wondered if he was ill. Of course I had never seen a Giant Panda before so had no basis of comparison, I figured maybe they were just lethargic sleepy animals! I had no idea he was simply old. I have some pictures of him, and other animals at the zoo, and I'll see about uploading them.
Given the good giant panda keeping and breeding record Tokyo Ueno Zoo is likely to receive a new young pair within the year.
