Bear News Update   Steve Irwin of Animal Planet IN MEMORIUM Irwin, Steve (1962-2006) Wildlife expert Wildlife expert, conservationist, television show host. Born on February 22, 1962, in Essendon in Victoria, Australia. Part wildlife expert and part entertainer, Irwin became world famous for his television series, The Crocodile Hunter, and other nature programs. While he had no scientific degree, he grew up studying and caring for animals at his parents' wildlife park, which is now known as the Australia Zoo. He first learned how to catch and handle his beloved crocodiles from his father and once received a python as a birthday present. Irwin met American-born Terri Raines, who in was in Australia on vacation, in 1991. The couple later married and spent part of their honeymoon filming crocodiles. This footage became part of their 1992 Australian television show, The Crocodile Hunter, and the two worked together on the program. Four years later, the series was picked up by the American cable network Animal Planet. At the peak of its popularity, the show aired in more than 200 countries. In each program, audiences were often spellbound by Irwin's dangerous encounters with animals. He thought nothing of tangling with deadly snakes, spiders, lizards, and, of course, crocodiles. In addition to his hair-raising adventures, Irwin considered himself a wildlife educator, sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for animals with his viewers. Always in his trademark khaki shirt and shorts, Irwin became a well-known figure in popular culture. He even had his own catchphrase—"Crikey!"—an Australian expression of surprise or excitement. There have been countless parodies and spoofs of the famed adventurer—even The Simpsons and South Park featured send-ups of Irwin. He wasn't afraid to poke fun at his image as an energetic naturalist and showman. Irwin appeared as himself in the 2001 film Dr. Dolittle 2 with Eddie Murphy. The next year Irwin and his wife starred in their own film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Irwin occasionally drew criticism for his stunts. Some said that he was exploiting the animals that appeared on his shows. He stirred up even greater controversy in 2004 for feeding a crocodile while holding his infant son. Many were shocked by the images of Irwin and his son Bob with the snapping crocodile and accused Irwin of child endangerment. Irwin was never charged in regard to this incident and stated that his son was never in harm's way. He grew up in a zoo environment and wanted the same for his son and his daughter Bindi Sue. On September 4, 2006, Irwin was working on a new program, filming at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Snorkeling near a stingray, he was pierced in the chest by its barb, which hit his heart. Irwin died of cardiac arrest shortly after being stung. Stunned by the news of his sudden death, people around the world mourned his passing. Many left flowers and notes at the Australia Zoo, which he and his wife ran, taking over for his parents. Others posted messages expressing their grief on the Web. Wildlife experts, such as Jack Hanna, noted that Irwin was a great conservationist. Irwin made many contributions to the field of wildlife education and conservation during his life. He ran an organization to rescue and protect crocodiles and supported numerous other animal charities. Many of nature's dangerous creatures lost their greatest champion the day Irwin died. © 2006 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved. The Steve Irwin Memorial Fund The over 5,000 members of the Discovery Communications workforce continue to mourn the loss of our friend and colleague Steve. We have been deeply touched by the outpouring of condolences, well wishes, memories and thoughts of Steve's fans from around the world. Discovery is working on a number of ways to preserve Steve's life dreams and passions, including how his friends and fans can support these ongoing efforts. While we affectionately and unofficially have dubbed these financial contributions The Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter Fund (or "The Crikey Fund"), all donations and contributions in the memory of Steve Irwin should be made to the Wildlife Warriors Fund (http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au/) to easily and quickly benefit Steve's dream and to keep his projects moving forward as he would have wanted. All donations designated as Steve Irwin Tribute funds will go directly to saving animals in the wild. Steve's fans can f welcoming community on the Web at www.animalplanet.com, and Animal Planet will dedicate special broadcast plans for a marathon and a special tribute in the days and weeks ahead. Copyright © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc. 4:32 p.m. EDT May 22, 2006 Wandering Bear Caught In Altamonte Springs Neighborhood ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - Wildlife officials caught an injured bear in Altamonte Springs Monday morning. The injured animal, according to Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, had been running around the area for the past three months. Before he was caught, he put on quite a show over the weekend. The bear made his presence known Sunday night by smashing through fences on West Citrus Street. Patrick Nass managed to capture some images of the bear on his camera. Nass described the bear's mood as docile. "He was just sitting there -- calm," Nass said. "And then we saw his paw, and it looked like it had just been cut off." By Monday morning, the action was at the Springs Colony apartments on state Road 436, where the bear turned up before 5:30 a.m. A resident alerted police to the bear. They said it was easy to keep an eye on him until Fish and Wildlife officers could get to the scene, because he didn't do much. "Kind of just relaxing and laying down, getting up, stretching every once in a while, shaking like dogs do when they get up in the morning," Altamonte Springs police spokesman Paul Machovina said. About 9:30 a.m. Fish and Wildlife officers arrived on scene and tranquilized the bear. They transported him to Gainesville for treatment for his severed paw. Once the bear is healthy they hope to release him back into the wild in Apalachicola. WESH.com © 2006   Watch the Bear Video! Apr 4, 2006 8:04 pm US/Eastern Tracking Bears In Massachusetts Scott Wahle Reporting (CBS4) What if you had a bear living in your backyard or under your porch? Both those things are happening right here in Massachusetts, and wildlife officials are keeping an eye on the trend in hopes of preventing problems. We went along as they tracked bears in a unique way.  On a drizzly morning the bear team from Mass. Wildlife cautiously approaches a den in the Northampton area only a few hundred yards from a house. Cautiously because there are 200 pounds of mother-bear inside, and she'll do almost anything to protect her cub. They're picking up a signal from a special radio transmitter collar this bear is wearing, a collar they attached several years ago. Dave Fuller sneaks up to the den with a "jab pole" fitted with a tranquilizer dart and sedates the bear. They wait about ten minutes to make sure the bear is asleep. Carefully they pull the black bear from her den. "This is an excavated den where the bear has enlarged a cavity under some old stumps and logs," says Jim Cardoza from Mass. Wildlife. He adds, "We had an adult female, it's six years old, a well fed, fat bear." Then they find a healthy cub, a female, five or six weeks old. Volunteers take turns holding the startled baby, keeping her warm inside their jackets. It's all part of an ongoing bear study. "We're interested in conserving bears in a densely populated state like Massachusetts," says Cardoza. The bear population is growing in the Commonwealth, eight to ten percent each year. "West of the Connecticut River they're about everywhere. In central Massachusetts they're most places. In eastern Massachusetts, right now they're just wanderers," according to Cardoza. And many bears are eating at bird feeders, trash cans and compost piles, putting them in close proximity to people. "Where bears have habituated to people and are conditioned to human foods and have lost their fear of humans, you may have the chance for human injury, slight though it may be," says Cardoza. Mass. Wildlife is following bears over time to study their behaviors and promote co-existence between bears and people. "By helping conserve bears you're helping conserve the bio-diversity of the Commonwealth," according to Jim Cardoza of Mass. Wildlife. After attaching a new transmitter collar with fresh batteries, the bear is moved back into her den, and her cub follows, safely back at her side. There are 12 bears in the state with radio transmitter collars. Wildlife officials check them once a year. They estimate that Massachusetts is home to about 2,000 bears. © MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Video, All Rights Reserved. Help Me! Dear Panda Paws,  With the 2006 Canadian seal slaughter just a few weeks away, baby harp seals desperately need your  voice in the growing chorus demanding a stop to the bloodbath. Please join The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) on March 15 for rallies at Canadian government offices in Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston, and help us show Canada that public pressure will not end until the cruel seal hunt does.If this year’s hunt is like last year's, sealers will kill more than 300,000 baby seals for their fur. Many of them will be two months of age or younger. Just last week, Heather and Paul McCartney visited the seals' nursery on the ice near Prince Edward Island to focus the world's attention on the horrors of the hunt. Please add your voice to the McCartneys', and make this year's demonstrations the largest in history. Your participation is crucial to showing Canada that worldwide outrage is growing and cannot be ignored. Please mark your calendar and bring friends and family with you to one of our events. E-mail us at protect-seals@hsus.org for more details or to find out about demonstrations in other cities. NEW YORK CITY Date: Wednesday, March 15 Time: 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. Location: Consulate General of Canada, 1251 Avenue of the Americas (near 6th Avenue) Directions: Take the B or D subway lines to the 47-50 Streets Rockefeller Center stop. WASHINGTON, D.C. Date: Wednesday, March 15 Time: 12 noon to 1 p.m. Location: Canadian Embassy, 501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Directions: Near the Archives/Navy Memorial (green line) and Judiciary Square (red line) Metro stops. BOSTON Date: Wednesday, March 15 Time: 12 noon to 1 p.m. Location: Copley Square at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Streets Directions: One block from the Consulate General of Canada at Three Copley Place. Near the Copley Stop on the MBTA Green Line. Co-sponsors: World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), Animal Rescue League of Boston, Greenpeace USA  Thank you for joining us in our fight to abolish the cruel seal hunt forever. Sincerely, Rebecca Aldworth Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues The Humane Society of the United States P.S. For more on how you can help the campaign, please visit www.ProtectSeals.org.     Dear Panda Paws, For years, we have shared a personal commitment to animal protection. Today we'd like to ask for your help in supporting an issue that is deeply important to us -- stopping Canada's massive seal hunt. We have just returned from a trip to the seal nursery on the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. We walked on the ice among mother seals as they nursed their newborn babies. There are no words to express how breathtaking the landscape is, with nothing but ice and ocean as far as the eye can see. The only sounds we heard were the wind and the cries of the baby seals, calling out to their mothers. But in just a few weeks, the boats will arrive, and the cries of the baby seals will be those of terror and agony as sealers clamber onto the ice with their clubs and guns. The pristine white of the ice will be stained with the blood of these baby seals, bludgeoned and shot to death so the sealers can sell their skins to the fur industry. Today we need your help to end this!   We believe that if we all work together, we can convince the Canadian government that now is the time to end the hunt forever. That's why we are asking you to make as generous a gift as you can to help The Humane Society of the United States continue to fight to save Canada's baby seals. The HSUS's ProtectSeals campaign is bringing all compassionate and humane-thinking citizens of the world together to pressure the Canadian government to end this hunt forever. Your donation will be used exclusively for the ProtectSeals campaign and will enable The HSUS to send a team of experts, journalists, and videographers to the ice so they can document the hunt, exposing the hideous cruelty that the Canadian government doesn't want the world to see. We plan to make sure that the world knows what happens on those isolated ice floes in the middle of the sea, and we will not rest until the slaughter has ended forever.  Please donate today. Yours, Heather and Paul McCartney   2006 Rally for the Seals: Take Part to Help Stop the Hunt Find out about the 2006 Seal Rally's to save the seals from this year's Canadian seal hunt. more A Time to Mourn and to Fight: As the Hunt Winds Down, the Boycott Gains Strength Sealers have now claimed the lives of nearly 260,000 seals, and the hunt proceeds. But the seafood boycott is taking hold. more About the Canadian Seal Hunt Tell the Canadian government that you oppose the Canadian seal hunt, which will kill almost one million harp seals over three years. more Canada’s Seal Hunt: Paying the Price The commercial seal hunt is turning out to be costly for the Canadian seafood industry. more Canada's Unsustainable 2003-2006 Seal Hunt Plan In Canada, sealers club and shoot hundreds of thousands of harp and hooded seals each year. The Canadian government recently decided to increase the annual seal quota despite its unsustainability. more Celebrities Support The HSUS ProtectSeals Campaign Find out which celebrities support The HSUS's ProtectSeals Campaign. more Day of Action: Thousands Across the Nation Turn Up the Heat on Red Lobster Enjoy accounts and images sent in by the activists who held Red Lobster Day of Action rallies across the country. more Designers Who Use Seal Fur and Skin Some very famous designers are selling clothes made of seal fur, which is giving Canada reason to continue the hunt. more Facts about the Canadian Seal Hunt Learn the facts behind Canada's brutal seal hunt, how the Canadian government supports it, and why it must be banned. more Give Seals a Chance: An Interview with Paul McCartney Paul McCartney talks about his recent trip to the seal nursery on the ice off Prince Edward Island and his and Heather Mills McCartney's work to end the seal hunt. more International Day of Action Against the Canadian Seal Hunt March 15, 2005, is the first International Day of Action against the Canadian Seal Hunt. Join us at the Canadian Embassy near you. more Make a Bid to Save Baby Seals at eBay Celebrity Auction Help protect seals by bidding on one of the seal shirts autographed by a celebrity at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. more Mounting ProtectSeals Successes Create Season of Hope for Seals With only months until the next commercial Canadian seal hunt begins, campaign head Pat Ragan explains why there is still time to save the seals. more News Reports from the 2005 Seal Hunt The HSUS will send a team of videographers, writers, and observers to the 2005 Canadian seal hunt to document the butchery that unfolds. Stay informed with our daily reports. more Protect Seals: What You Can Do Want to stop the Canadian seal hunt? You can send your message via e-mail, fax, letter, or even the shirt on your back. more Rebecca Aldworth's Journal for the 2005 Seal Hunt Travel with HSUS Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues Rebecca Aldworth to the 2005 seal hunt via her journals from the ice. more Strategy for Success: As the Hunt Approaches, Support for Seals Grows While the start date for the 2006 Canadian seal hunt approaches, resistance to the hunt grows. more The Protect Seals Network The worldwide network of organizations committed to ending the Canadian seal hunt has been growing steadily. more Three Years of Campaigning for the Seals: A Progress Report A review of how far the effort to end the Canadian seal hunt has come in the last three years. more Want to Help End the Seal Hunt? Boycott Canadian Seafood. A boycott of Canadian seafood products is a powerful weapon for ending the seal hunt. more Zoo officials say Su Lin is Chinese for "a little bit of something very cute." San Diego Zoo names baby panda   Friday, November 11, 2005; Posted: 11:06 a.m. EST (16:06 GMT)   SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- The baby panda at the San Diego Zoo got a special present to celebrate her 100-day birthday: a name. Zoo officials announced Thursday the cub will be called Su Lin. The name -- one of five options in an online poll -- means "a little bit of something very cute" in Chinese, according to the zoo. Su Lin, which got 44 percent of the more than 70,000 votes cast, also was the name of the first giant panda brought to the United States in 1936. The zoo followed Chinese tradition by waiting 100 days after the cub's August 2 birth to name her. The five names were submitted by the zoo's Giant Panda Team and approved by the People's Republic of China, which owns Su Lin and her parents, Bai Yun, the zoo's adult female, and Gao Gao, the adult male. The second-place name with 35 percent of the vote was Bao Bei, which means "precious, priceless, treasure." Su Lin still has trouble standing and has not yet left her den. The 10-pound ball of fur can be seen by the public on the zoo's Panda Cam. She is the third panda born at the Balboa Park zoo. Her brother, Mei Sheng, which means "Born in the USA," remains there. The zoo's first cub, Hua Mei, which means "China USA," has since returned to China and became a mother.   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   See for yourself at Sina.com   China unveils 5 Olympic mascots   Friday, November 11, 2005; Posted: 7:54 a.m. EST (12:54 GMT)   BEIJING, China (AP) -- After years of fierce lobbying and months of secrecy, Beijing unveiled five mascots for the 2008 Olympics on Friday, opening a marketing blitz that is expected to reap record profits. In an elaborate, nationally televised gala at a Beijing sports arena to mark the 1,000-day countdown until the Games, senior Chinese leaders introduced the mascots -- cartoon renditions of a panda, fish, Tibetan antelope, swallow and the Olympic flame, each one the color of one of the Olympic rings. "The five friendlies are an incredible little family carefully chosen by Beijing 2008 to represent all of China to carry a message of friendship to the children of the world," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said in a statement that was read at the ceremony. "China is so lucky to have so many beautiful animals to represent the Olympic spirit," Rogge said. The animals were introduced as Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni -- which, put together, translates to "Beijing welcomes you!" It is the most number of mascots any Olympic Games has had in more than 30 years. The Salt Lake City and Sydney Games both had three. A plethora of real and mythic creatures were among the candidates considered by Chinese leaders, Olympic officials and design specialists over the past year. Among those that didn't make the cut were the dragon and a mischievous magical monkey out of Chinese folklore. The choice, the subject of lively media speculation for months, has been a secret since it was finalized three months ago, sealed by confidentiality agreements and the habitual secrecy of the communist government. At stake for China is one of the most marketable symbols in the Olympics -- a symbol that stands to generate significant revenues and public support for the Beijing Games, which will cost an estimated $38 billion. Sales of licensed products, including those with the mascot, have brought in about $300 million at the Sydney and Athens Olympics. Host cities keep 10 to 15 percent of the royalties, helping to defray the costs of staging the Games. The Panda - One of five 2008 Beijing Olympic Mascots Officials with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games say they expect sales of such products to be higher still. To capitalize on the mascots' publicity, Beijing is launching an extensive marketing campaign. An animated film put together by Han Meilin, who headed the design team, was screened at Friday night's unveiling and is expected to be replayed on Chinese television in coming days. "This time the mascot design fully combines traditional Chinese culture," Han was quoted as saying by the Chinese Web site, Sina.com. On Saturday, postage stamps and more than 300 other licensed products of the mascot go on sale at 188 authorized venues across the country, widening a product line of T-shirts, caps, pens and bags bearing the 2008 Games logo, according to Olympic officials. To capture an entire range of consumers, the mascot products will range from fluorescent pens for 8 yuan ($1) to souvenirs made from precious metals selling for tens of thousands of yuan (thousands of dollars). Beyond the sales expectations, China has tried to use the mascot-selection process to involve communities far from Beijing. On hand for the unveiling at the Workers Gymnasium in eastern Beijing were 100 children "ambassadors" from western provinces. Organizers of the Games threw open the selection process, inviting suggestions from the public and local governments, and many of the latter lobbied fiercely for the honor. Sichuan province spent 2 million yuan ($240,000) in public and privately donated funds on promoting the panda. Altogether, BOCOG has received 662 suggestions. Organizers whittled those down to 56, which were then put to a ten-member expert committee of designers, which in turn selected six candidates. Organizers and senior leaders then chose one, and the International Olympic Committee approved the choice in August.   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     The "groom," Chuang Chuang, left, and Lin Hui enjoy their wedding cake Wednesday in Thailand. Two pandas tie the knot   Thousands of guests came to the party dressed as pandas   BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thousands of people in Thailand came to the wedding party Wednesday, but the nuptial bliss belonged to a pair of animals: the country's only two resident giant pandas. As Chuang Chuang and his female partner, Lin Hui, have become adults and begin to mate, Thai officials decided it was time for the couple to make it official. Thais dressed in panda and other animal costumes marched and played music in a traditional Thai wedding procession to northern Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo, where the pandas live. The guests witnessed a Chinese tea ceremony and a feast of cake -- a four-layer ice sculpture filled with fruits that pandas typically eat, said a zoo spokeswoman, Rossukhon Chuicomwong. The pandas' living quarters were decorated with a large, festive red ribbon and a carved dragon decoration. Thailand rented Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui from China for US$250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. The pandas are expected to generate millions of dollars in revenues from Thai and foreign tourists during their stay.   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.       Giant panda Bai Yun has given birth twice before at the San Diego Zoo. The gender of the newborn is unknown. Giant panda cub born at San Diego Zoo   Wednesday, August 3, 2005; Posted: 11:31 a.m. EDT (15:31 GMT)   Bai Yun gave birth shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday after being in labor for three hours. The birth -- the second in less than a month at a U.S. zoo -- was captured on closed-circuit television in the Giant Panda Research Station birthing den. Zoo officials said the cub weighed 4 ounces, the size of a stick of butter. The gender will not be known for some time because zoo officials don't want to disrupt mother and child. "The birth of a giant panda cub is definitely something to celebrate," said Yadira Galindo, the zoo's spokeswoman. Breeding pandas in captivity is a particularly difficult process, in part because females are in heat for only a day or two a year, and many cubs do not survive infancy. It wasn't until 1999, when Bai Yun had a female cub, Hua Mei, that a panda born in a U.S. zoo survived into adulthood. Bai Yun successfully gave birth to a second cub, a male, in 2003. Two fetuses were detected last month during a routine check of Bai Yun, who had mated with a male in April. However, on Monday the zoo's veterinary staff said one of the fetuses had died in the womb. Experts said it appears to be common for giant pandas to conceive twins and then lose one fetus; the same thing happened during Bai Yun's 2003 pregnancy. The panda born Tuesday joins a cub born July 9 at the National Zoo in Washington. Zoo officials there announced Tuesday that they had finally been able to examine the little creature while the panda's mother, 6-year-old Mei Xiang, left the den to eat, and determined it is male. Last month, Zoo Atlanta officials had said their 7-year-old giant panda, Lun Lun, was showing symptoms of a possible pregnancy. She had been artificially inseminated in March. But spokeswoman Jacqueline Petty said Wednesday that experts had determined this week that it was a false pregnancy. There are about 1,600 giant pandas in captivity and in the wild, zoo officials said. Gestation in giant pandas has been estimated at 97 to 163 days, making it difficult to predict a birth date accurately.   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Zoo staff determined the giant panda cub's gender as male during its first health exam. National Zoo's baby panda is a boy   Tuesday, August 2, 2005; Posted: 3:24 p.m. EDT (19:24 GMT)   Curious veterinarians at the Smithsonian National Zoo lured giant panda Mei Xiang out of her den with a bamboo snack and sneaked a look at her cub, which was born July 9. The cub is now 12 inches (30 cm) long and weighs 1.8 pounds (825.7 grams), the zoo said in a statement. Veterinarian Sharon Deem was also able to listen to its heart and breathing and said he sounded healthy. The popular giant pandas are endangered and notoriously difficult to breed. Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated on March 11, and a careful pregnancy and birth watch ensued. Until now, the new mother has been left undisturbed with her cub so as not to interfere with bonding. Surveillance cameras have been used to monitor her behavior and to provide glimpses of the helpless baby panda. Mei Xiang and the cub's father, Tian Tian, are on a 10-year loan to the zoo from their native China. Under the agreement, the cub will be sent to China after it is weaned in a year or two. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the zoo's previous pair of pandas, which are related to raccoons, produced five cubs between 1983 and 1989 but all of them died within days. A second U.S. panda, at the San Diego Zoo, is pregnant with twins, zoo officials there say. Bai Yun gave birth in 1999 to a female cub, Hua Mei, the first surviving giant panda to have been born in the United States.   Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Watch the video! Speedy panda pursuit   July 19, 2005   A wild giant panda which wandered into a south-western Chinese city at the weekend led would-be rescuers on a day-long chase before it was captured and returned to the wild. The animal was first spotted early Saturday morning in Dujiangyuan, a city in Sichuan province, and was pursued by residents of a housing complex who initially thought it was a cat burglar, reports the China Daily. The panda managed to escape by climbing over roofs and disappearing through an iron gate into darkness. "The panda was amazingly agile and totally different from those at the zoos," a witness, surnamed Xu, was quoted as saying. Several hours later, police received reports that the panda had been sighted in a river, the newspaper said. Police observed the swimming panda until it stopped to climb a tree on the riverbank, where it stayed until daybreak. Around midmorning, with the help of a tranquilizer dart and rope, firemen were able to lift the panda from the tree so it could be returned home. The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species, with fewer than 1,600 living in the wild in western China.   Reuters     Panda Leads Chinese City on Pursuit   BEIJING (AP) -- A wild panda that strayed into a southwestern Chinese city over the weekend scaled a fence, hopped from roof to roof, swam in a river and napped in a tree before it was caught, a news agency reported. The panda led residents of Dujiangyan in Sichuan province on a chase after wandering into the town and spending the day there, the Xinhua News Agency said. Experts cited by Xinhua said the 4- to 5-year-old female weighed about 130 pounds and could have been looking for a mate or have been driven from home by her mother. The saga began Saturday when three men drinking beer spotted a figure "nimbly" climbing over a fence surrounding a housing estate, Xinhua said. The men and residents gave chase, thinking it was a thief trying to break in, but changed tactics when they realized it was a panda. Some people blocked entrances to the housing estate, while others searched for the animal and found it calmly sitting on the roof of a bungalow, Xinhua said. Efforts to reach the animal failed as it began running from roof to roof before hopping off 20 minutes later, climbing another gate and disappearing. "The panda was amazingly agile and totally different from those at zoos," Xinhua quoted one woman as saying. Police found the panda again a few hours later after receiving a report that it was taking a dip at a nearby river. It later hunkered down for the night in a tree. Xinhua said the animal was tranquilized the next morning. Li Desen, a zoologist at the province's Wolong giant panda research center, said the panda suffers from liver and kidney disease and hurt her paws during her escapade. The animal hasn't eaten anything, although the center has prepared fresh bamboo leaves and glucose for her, Li said. "She was obviously scared during the adventure," he said. "She's probably not feeling well either." The panda is now under 24-hour intensive care, Li said. China regards the panda as an unofficial national mascot, but the animal's limited diet, threatened natural habitat and agonizingly slow reproduction rate has kept its numbers down. There are an estimated 1,590 wild pandas and another 120 in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos - most in Sichuan.   © 2004-2005 Associated Press.   Roaming panda 'might be hunting for Mr Right' (China Daily) Updated: 2005-07-19 06:02 CHENGDU: The giant panda found roaming the streets of a city in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday may have been hunting for her "Mr Right," experts said yesterday. "She weighs 60 kilograms and is between four and five years old - an age when most pandas have reached puberty," said Li Desheng, a zoologist with the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre in Sichuan. Rescuers secure a safety belt around a wild giant panda trapped in a tree in Dujiangyan City, southwestern China's Sichuan province, July 16, 2005. The female giant panda toured a public square, residential areas, and swam in a river in Dujiangyan City before she was caught by rescuers in a tree, local media reported. She was taken to the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Wolong. Picture taken July 16, 2005. [newsphoto] "Alternatively, she might have been driven away by her mother to lead an independent life," said Li. A preliminary check-up at the Wolong centre found the panda is suffering from liver and kidney problems and has injuries to her paws. Blood tests were being carried out yesterday to further clarify the panda's condition. According to Li the panda had not eaten since being captured even though fresh bamboo leaves and glucose had been specially prepared for her. "She's obviously been scared by the adventure, but she's also probably not feeling very well." She is currently under 24-hour intensive care and many people have called the centre to ask about her situation, he added. Li said the panda had probably not deliberately headed into the city. "She might have fallen into the river while looking for habitat and then been washed all the way into the city." Researchers are collecting evidence from witnesses to try and find out where the panda came from. The bear was seen nimbly climbing a 3-metre fence and then entering a housing estate in the early hours of Saturday morning and was almost mistaken for a "burglar." She played hide-and-seek with her pursuers for several hours, jumping from roof to roof in an amazingly agile manner, totally unlike her lethargic relatives in the zoo. After evading initial attempts to catch her, the panda was spotted again in the local Zoumahe River later on Saturday morning. "I got up at 6:40 am to go jogging as usual, and heard someone yelling that a panda was in the river," said Wang Pingxi, a citizen who works for the local economic and trade bureau. "She was a good swimmer I must say - leisurely and expertly doing the front crawl." Wang said he and many other by-standers wanted to help the panda out. "But the water ran so fast that she swam downstream before we could do anything. I didn't think she would manage to get ashore by herself. She's so cute." After being carried 2 kilometres down stream, the panda grasped a branch overhanging the river and climbed up the tree to rest. At 10:00 am, an anaesthetist used a rifle to put the panda to sleep. Firemen then climbed the tree and carried the panda down. A local official said mountains around the city of Dujiangyan are a major habitat for giant pandas. "In 1999, local citizens carried an injured panda to the city government compound to seek first-aid," said Huang Anping, a publicity official with the city government. Huang said panda droppings were found close to Zhaogongshan Mountain in the city's suburbs in March, but it was very rare for the animals to intrude into cities. Experts say giant panda live in mountain forests with dense stands of bamboo, at between 2,700 and 3,900 metres, but descend as low as 800 metres in winter. They shelter in hollow trees, rock crevasses and caves but have no permanent dens. They live mostly on the ground but are good tree climbers. According to the World Wildlife Fund, by mid-2005, the Chinese Government had established more than 50 panda reserves, protecting more than 10,400 square kilometres. http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/19/content_461242.htm      A giant panda rests in a comparment at Shanghai Zoo Monday July 18, 2005 in Shanghai, China. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Kang Kang is recovering after a lengthy operation. China panda goes under the knife Friday, April 15, 2005 Posted: 12:05 AM EDT (0405 GMT) BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A giant panda has gone under the knife in a two-and-a-half hour operation to fix a broken back, Chinese state media said on Friday. The 20-year-old panda, named Kang Kang, was found partly paralyzed at a nature reserve in central Shaanxi province, the China Daily said, and was most likely the loser in a breeding season battle with another male. Veterinary surgeons at Xijing Hospital in the provincial capital Xi'an on Thursday fixed a broken vertebra, stabilised the spinal cord and removed some sections of bone to reduce pressure on spinal nerves. It was the first time such an operation had been carried out on a panda, the newspaper said. "It is difficult to say if it will be able to stand properly after the operation, but we have certainly stabilized the injury and prolonged the animal's life," Li Mingquan, the surgeon who led the procedure, was quoted as saying. China's giant pandas are rebounding from the brink of extinction thanks to efforts to protect their natural habitat, but they still number only about 1,750, according to Chinese estimates. Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Courtesy of Rattlebox Pictures © 2003 4,000 Year Old Panda Skeleton Found BEIJING (Reuters) - The skeleton of a giant panda has been found in a 4,000-year-old tomb in central China, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, adding that the now-endangered animals were apparently being hunted at that time. Wu Xianzhu, of the Hubei Provincial Archaeology Research Institute, said pigs and dogs had been used in burials as "funerary objects" since the early New Stone Age, dating back about 8,000 years. "Burying the giant pandas with the dead shows that ancient people had close contact with the creatures," he was quoted as saying. The No. 77 tomb, in the Guanzhuangping Ruins of Zigui County, is the only tomb to have been found with panda remains. "When the tomb was first excavated in 2001, the animal remains found were believed to be the bone of the lower jaw of a pig. But with further research, archaeologists decided that the bone belonged to a giant panda," Wu was quoted as saying. Panda bones had been unearthed from other ruins from the same period, indicating that pandas were hunted by human beings at the time, it said. Pandas have boosted their numbers in the wild by almost half to about 1,600 in just a few years thanks to enlarged habitat and improved ecosystems, Xinhua said last month. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.   Bear ransacks kitchen, steals chocolate Thursday, September 30, 2004 Posted: 7:37 AM EDT (1137 GMT) DENVER, Colorado (Reuters) -- It's a tale of man against nature. A paralyzed man in Aspen, Colorado, lay helplessly in bed for two hours while a black bear known as "Fat Albert" went through his kitchen breaking dishes and looking for a tasty snack. "I had 4 pounds (2 kg) of chocolate from a ski trip. He ate it all -- it's war," Tom Isaac said, recounting with a sense of humor how the 500-pound (230-kg) bear made himself at home at his house on September 20. "I could hear things breaking for two hours," he said of the bear's "visit" to his home. Isaac's bedroom was only about 10 to 15 feet (3-5 meters) from the kitchen, and he feared the bear would come in and attack him. This time of year bears are busy fattening up before going into hibernation and residents in mountain towns