Panda Paws Protecting The Bears End Bear Hunting Be a voice for the thousands who can not speak out for themselves. "Over 26,000 black bears are killed in America by hunters every year. Over 90% of the wild population die by hunters in less than 2 months every year during Hunting Season." - Living Wild, National Geographic If you would like to End Bear Hunting please sign our petition before another hunting season passes: Petition To End Bear Hunting   October 2007 Rare White Koala Bear Sep 21 - A rare white koala which has been likened to a polar bear cub is taken to a vet to protect him from poachers. A white koala that has been nicknamed Mick was found by police officers in bushland in eastern Australia, local media reported. The police noticed that the koala was unwell and took him to a koala hospital in Port Macquarie for treatment. Mick may have white fur and pink eyelids but doctors at the hospital said that he is not an albino. The exact location of the rare koala's home has not been disclosed in order to keep him safe from poachers. © Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Inconsolable Panda September 2006 Panda inconsolable after crushing cub China's Ya Ya wails and looks for new-born twin she accidentally killed. BEIJING - Staff at a zoo in southwest China are in mourning after a sleep-deprived panda dropped her two-day-old baby and crushed it to death, local media reported on Friday. “It was very sudden, but also unavoidable,” Guo Wei, panda department chief at Chongqing city zoo in the southwestern region of Chongqing, told the Chongqing Business News daily. Ya Ya, a seven-year-old panda and new mother of twins, “appeared tired” when nursing the younger cub in a patch of grass, the paper said. Her head sagged, her paws separated and her baby fell to the ground next to her. The panda then rolled on to her side and crushed her baby beneath her. The tragedy occurred because she hadn’t slept or eaten properly since giving birth, Guo said, adding that Ya Ya lacked motherhood experience. According to Guo, the zoo had tried on several occasions to separate the cub from its mother for their safety, but Ya Ya “was very cautious” and would “roar and bare her teeth” at zoo-keepers. The elder of the twins was in good health and being cared for, zoo officials said. But Ya Ya had proved inconsolable, wailing and looking for her baby after its body was taken away from her. “Pandas who lose their young tend to be depressed for a month or so,” Guo said, adding that the zoo would assign people to care for her and provide special food to improve her mood. Updated: 2:11 a.m. ET Sept 8, 2006 Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Endangered Animals August 2006 China OK's Hunting of Endangered Species BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China is to auction licenses to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including endangered species, a newspaper said on Wednesday. The government would auction licenses based on types and numbers of wild animals, ranging from about $200 for a wolf, the only carnivore on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, the Beijing Youth Daily said. The auction, taking place on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would be the first of its kind in Chinese history, it added. "Some animals are from the first and second category of national wildlife protection, but with the strict limitations in place, the hunting could not destroy wild animal populations," the daily said. The report made no mention of the endangered giant panda, some 1,500 of which survive in nature reserves in southwestern China. Five western areas, including Qinghai, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and the autonomous regions of Ningxia and Xinjiang, are involved in the auction. Hunting of animals is popular with Chinese who like to eat exotic meats or use animal parts in medicines for their perceived aphrodisiac or medicinal properties. But the hunting licenses would be available only to foreigners, given China's strict rules on gun control, the daily said. "Hunting is not slaughtering," it quoted an official at a wild animal protection department as saying. Proceeds from the auction would be used for wild animal protection, the report said. Wednesday, August 9, 2006; Posted: 11:08 a.m. EDT (15:08 GMT) Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   View live Bear Cam Now! July 2006 New Web Cam Reveals Vulnerable Bears in the Wild ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Only a lucky few are allowed each summer to get up close and personal with the McNeil River bears, but now they have a much bigger audience thanks to a remote camera trained on their every move. In something akin to the Big Brother reality television show, the camera pans the falls where the bears gather to brawl over salmon, cool off in the falls, sunbathe on the rocks and fatten up for the long, Alaska winter. The 114,400-acre McNeil River State Game Sanctuary in a roadless area about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage is one of the best places in the world to view brown bears, especially for a few peak weeks each summer when dozens at a time show up to snack on salmon. The bear cam is turned on from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. and has eight presets to zoom in on where the bears are likely to be at any given hour. During the afternoon, an interpreter at the Pratt Museum in Homer controls the solar-powered camera to get the best views. Mike O'Meara, project manager for the small museum in the resort town across Cook Inlet from the sanctuary, expects 20,000 museum visitors to use the bear cam this summer. The state allows only about 250 people a year into the sanctuary to view the bears and those people are selected by lottery. The bear cam allows the less lucky to get a look, too, O'Meara said. "The first thing they have to say is, 'Oh, this is live.' That intrigues them. Then they really get wrapped up in watching the bears. A lot of them are struck in how the bears interact and communicate with each other," he said. In the peak weeks in July, the falls draw more brown bears than anywhere else in the world. While numbers have been decreasing in recent years, the bears still put on a good show. The record was 72 observed at one time in 1999. What makes McNeil truly extraordinary is how close visitors can get to the bears, which sometimes come to within 10 feet of a viewing platform as they use steps built into the hillside to get down to the falls. "It is a marvelous experience," said O'Meara, who has visited the sanctuary. "It is so unique. I wander the bush all the time and I see bears constantly in the wild all over this state. I would never allow that close proximity anywhere else but McNeil." Given the stringent limits on the number of people allowed into the sanctuary, the bear cam opens up the world of the McNeil River bears, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game. "This gives a lot of folks the opportunity to view these bears. We think it is a real positive thing," he said. The camera is hidden in a fake boulder at the falls. The microwave signal travels from the camera to the museum and then through a series of repeater stations, including one on Mount Augustine volcano in Cook Inlet. From the museum, the video feed is relayed to servers in Seattle, and from there is published on the National Geographic Society's website, where viewers can access it online in real time. Two grants from the National Park Service foundation totaling about $40,000 and a $20,000 grant from the Mead Foundation paid for installing the bear cam and setting up the high-quality video and audio stream to the museum. National Geographic is covering the costs of maintaining the website to bring the bears to an international audience, O'Meara said. The camera, which went online in early June, will likely be shut off for the season in late August, when most of the bears leave and prepare for winter. O'Meara and Michael Yourkowski, general manager of SeeMore Wildlife Systems in Homer, which set up the bear cam, said they hope it raises public awareness about the bears and how recent changes have made them more vulnerable to being hunted. The Board of Game has decided to allow brown bear hunting on state land just south and southeast of the sanctuary, beginning July 1, 2007. That decision places the McNeil bears at greater risk because they often roam outside the sanctuary's borders. They also aren't as likely as other wild bears to run off when encountering humans, O'Meara and Yourkowski said. "The bears that come to the falls are somewhat habituated to humans because the humans are sitting there and watching them all the time. That makes them not leery of hunters," Yourkowski said. O'Meara, a longtime Alaskan who likes to hunt, said there's no challenge in killing a McNeil River bear. "It is a little like going to the stockyards and plugging a poor, old cow," he said. Associated Press 18:29 PM Jul, 19, 2006 VIEWERS GUIDE Best Time to Watch The bears are most active between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. eastern time (4 to 11 p.m. Alaska time), and they continue feeding throughout the night. Bears on View Large, mature bears arrive first, in late June or early July. A few single females appear on the scene later in July, and mothers with cubs make an appearance in August. Last to arrive are subadult bears, which are at the bottom of the social structure. They appear around August 15, when the larger, adult males have left. Eating Habits Bears head to McNeil Falls for the huge number of salmon that run there in the summer. Adults can catch and eat three or four fish—averaging 7 pounds (3.2 kilograms) each—per hour. Over the summer large male bears can increase their weight by 40 percent. Image courtesy of http://www.camelotbears.com Watch the video! June 2006 Black Bear Pulls A Goldilocks On A N.J. Property Astonished Couple Looks On As Bear Snoozes In Hammock (CBS) HIGHLAND LAKES Susan and Vinnie Kehoe got the shock of a lifetime on Sunday. They were in their kitchen eating when they noticed something bizarre going on -- a slumbering bear was just chillin' in their backyard. "I looked out the window and thought somebody was on my hammock, a person," Susan said. "He was rocking himself to sleep." Susan said she watched the bear sleep for about five minutes before he woke up and fell out of the hammock. She then grabbed her video camera just in time to catch him trying to do it all over again. "Bears are a lot smarter than we think they are," Susan said. "He went up there, it felt good to him and he utilized it to his benefit. He had a nice little snooze." This bear really felt the comforts of home, lounging in her hammock. What a story Susan has to tell. "Goldilocks," eat your heart out. "It was better than watching a good movie on TV," she said. © MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_165214500.html http://wcbstv.com/video   Grolar? Pizzly? What do you think? Jim Martell, left, stands with a bear he shot during a hunt in Canada last month. Tests show that the bear's mom was a polar bear and dad was a grizzly. May 2006 Odd Bear Confirmed as Polar-Grizzly Hybrid TORONTO (May 11) - A DNA test has confirmed hat zoologists, hunters and aboriginal trackers in the far northern reaches of Canada have dreamed of for years: the first documented case of a grizzly-polar bear in the wild. Roger Kuptana, an Inuit tracker from the Northwest Territories, suspected the American hunter he was guiding had shot a hybrid bear after noticing its white fur was spotted brown and it had the long claws and slightly humped back of a grizzly. Territorial officials seized the bear's body and a DNA test from Wildlife Genetics International, a lab in British Columbia, confirmed the hybrid was born of a polar bear mother and grizzly father. "It's something we've all known was theoretically possible because their habitats overlap a little bit and their breeding seasons overlap a little bit," said Ian Stirling, a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton, Alberta. "It's the first time it's known to have happened in the wild." He said the first person to realize something was different about the bear -- shot and killed last month on the southern end of Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea -- was Kuptana , the guide. "These guides know their animals and they recognized that there were a number of things that didn't look quite right for a polar bear," Stirling told The Associated Press. The bear's eyes were ringed with black, its face was slightly indented, it had a mild hump to its back and long claws. Stirling said polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos and that their offspring are fertile, but there had been no documented case in the wild. Kuptana, a guide from Sachs Harbour in the Northwest Territories, was tracking with Idaho big-game hunter Jim Martell, who paid $45,450 for a license to hunt polar bears. The DNA results were good news for the 65-year-old hunter, who was facing a possible $909 fine and up to a year in jail for shooting a grizzly. The Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources Department now intends to return the bear to Martell. "It will be quite a trophy," Martell told the National Post last week, even before the DNA results were in. He returned to Yellowknife for another hunt, this time for a grizzly bear. He told the newspaper he has dubbed the creature "polargrizz." Stirling said his colleagues have come up with a few names of their own for the hybrid: a "pizzly" or a "grolar bear." One colleague suggested calling it "nanulak," combining the Inuit names for polar bear -- "nanuk" -- and grizzly bear, which is "aklak." "He has a remarkable trophy from his perspective and from the perspective of this whole fraternity of people who like to go big-game hunting for trophies," said Stirling. When asked how he felt about the rare beast being killed, the biologist would only say that Canada's polar bear hunt -- which runs from December through the end of May -- is done on a sustainable basis. Colin Adjun, a wildlife officer in Kugluktuk on the northern mainland in western Nunavut, said he's heard stories about an oddly colored bear cavorting with polars. "It was a light chocolate color along with a couple of polar bears," Adjun said. Though people have talked about the possibility of a mix, "it hasn't happened in our area," he said. Three years ago, a research team spotted a grizzly on uninhabited Melville Island, 215 miles north of where Martell bagged his crossbreed. Polar bear and grizzly territories also overlap in the Western Arctic around the Beaufort Sea, where the occasional grizzly is known to head onto the sea ice looking for food after emerging from hibernation. Some grizzly bears make it over the ice all the way to Banks Island and Victoria Island, where they have been spotted and shot. That might explain how a grizzly got to the region, but few can explain how it managed to get along with a polar bear long enough to mate. According to the National Wildlife Federation, there are about 1,200 grizzlies in the lower 48 United States, 32,000 in Alaska, and 25,000 in Canada. Stirling said there are some 24,000 polar bears in Canada, Greenland, Russia and Alaska. AP correspondent Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story. 05/11/06 23:54 EDT Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. Updated: 09:54 AM EDT By BETH DUFF-BROWN, AP     Learn more about Carpathian Bears April 2006 Romania's bears at bay Bears are now a common sight in many villages Romania's brown bears are increasingly descending from the country's Carpathian Mountains and raiding local towns in an effort to find food. The bears are known to trek up to 20km (12.5 miles) a night in their search for food, and are regularly seen rummaging through litter bins and skips in the quiet suburbs of foothill settlements.  They are now drawing crowds on warm evenings, and remote villages in particular are visited regularly by wild animals. "Suddenly I heard a great noise - a bear was trying to break into a stable where the sheep were closed in for the night," one villager told BBC World Service's The Carnivore Trail programme. "I shouted to my husband, 'Gheorghie, wake up! A bear is attacking the sheep'." In this case, the bear was chased off by villagers awoken by the noise. Endangered species Brown bears, being scavengers and omnivores, are quite able to live off the food that Romanians throw out. But there are increasing fears that they will soon become extinct in this part of the world. Romania is one of the very few countries in Europe that permits limited bear hunting. Earlier this month, a number of people - including French President Jacques Chirac and actress Bridgette Bardot - wrote a letter to Romania's Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to voice their concerns about the fate of the bear. Bears will travel many miles a night to find food Their letter was partially in response to the government's decision to allow the shooting of 300 bears this year. Hunting-tourism has become big business in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, the last place in Europe, apart from Russia, where many large carnivores - bears, wolves and lynxes - can be found. Laszlo Szeley-Szabo, the president of the Carpathian animal protection group the Aves Foundation, has also sent a report to Mr Nastase which detailed evidence that the bear population was down from the official figure of 6,300 to 2,500. "Romania's kill figures for the trophy-hunter market are way above a sustainable cull," the Aves Foundation report argued. "They endanger the species." The report goes on to say that official figures relied on evidence from local farmers' sightings, and argued that different witnesses may be seeing the same bear at different points along its journey into the foothills. The European Union last year responded to the Aves Foundation's concerns by pointing out that member states "have to ensure a favourable conservation status of natural habitats and species of wild fauna and flora of Community interest". Gunther Verheugen, the EU commissioner supervising EU membership applications, has said that if Romania joined the EU - as it hopes - EU laws would prohibit the bear hunting. Poacher threat The Romanian government, however, says that its figures are accurate. It also says that "foraging hungry bears are now causing serious damage to the livestock of people living in the small mountain villages of the Carpathians". One Carpathian shepherd told The Carnivore Trail that bears did sometimes take sheep, and that unless he could prove they had done so he would have to cover the cost of their loss himself. However, he added that last year only a "handful" had been killed by bears. Romanian rubbish provides a tasty take-away But even were bear hunting to be banned in the future, the bears would still face another ongoing threat - poachers. A number of poachers currently roam the mountains hunting the large carnivores, and their kills are not included in the quota. Some who have killed bears say that they were attacked and acted in self-defence, but studies of bear behaviour - which have shown they are wary of humans - indicate this may be unlikely. "A man was recently attacked by a bear in the forest - but there is something fishy about the whole story," one shepherd said. "He refuses to explain what happened, or where it was. He may have been a poacher. Bears are afraid of humans. They don't attack unless they're provoked." Courtesy of British Broadcasting Corporation © 2002-2005 Archive from Saturday, 3 July, 2004, 08:37 GMT 09:37 UK   From "End Bear Hunting Petition" Entry Number 3,027 12:47 am PST, Mar 4 Silviu Dragomir Constanta, Romania "help Romanian bears too" Photo courtesy of: webmaster@fris.sk © FRIS Zvolen 2001 - 2006 For more information visit: http://www.fris.sk/en/lesy/o-lesoch/zakl-fakty/game.htm     Click here to SAVE Romanian Bears - Laszio Szabo Szley © 2006 AVES You can travel and see the extreamly rare WHITE SPIRIT BEAR too March 2006 Home of the Rare White Spirit Bear Not a Polar Bear, but an extreamly rare sub-species of the Black Bear. Deal creates parkland for bears, wolves, salmon; Area home to rare white 'spirit' bear. Canada unveiled a 16-million acre preserve Tuesday, including parkland covering an area twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes. Closing another chapter of the wars between environmentalists and loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an accord between governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and environmentalists. It will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia's rugged Pacific coastline -- the ancestral home of groups whose cultures date back thousands of years. The area also sustains a rare white bear which is found only in British Columbia. "The agreement on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration between First Nations, industry, local governments and many other stakeholders in how we manage the vast richness of B.C.'s coast for the benefit of all British Columbians," said Premier Gordon Campbell, who was accompanied by native dancers and drummers for the announcement and formal First Nations blessing. "The result is a strong marriage that balances the needs of the environment with the need for sustainable jobs and a strong economic future for coastal communities," he said. Campbell said 4.4 million acres would be protected outright and managed as parkland, with another 11.6 million run under an ecosystem management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal impact on the environment. Yellowstone National Park is 2.2 million acres. Full implementation of the project is not expected until 2009. British Columbia's lush evergreen forests have been the scene of decades of confrontation between environmentalists and loggers. Successful boycott campaigns in the 1990s led to large international companies turning away from British Columbia paper and wood products, forcing the government to find a negotiated solution. "British Columbians are showing that it is possible to protect the environment and provide the economic foundation for healthy communities," said Lisa Matthaus, coast campaign co-coordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada's British Columbia chapter. "This innovative rainforest agreement provides a real world example of how people and wilderness can prosper together." The region is home to hundreds of species, including grizzlies, black bears, the so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose and deer. The spirit bear is a rare white species and is also called the kermode bear. (Watch a rare spirit bear in Great Bear Rainforest -- 3:17) A central component of the Great Bear Rainforest project will be a $104 million conservation financing package to support the land-use agreements. To date, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada and ForestEthics, the Nature Conservancy, Tides Canada Foundation and several private U.S. and Canadian foundations have raised $52 million to help establish the financing package. The provincial government has committed $26 million and project partners are working to secure the rest from Canada's federal government. Speaking on behalf of the 25 aboriginal groups involved in the project, Art Sterritt of the North Coast First Nations said the agreement would allow for controlled use of the land and let natives continue their traditional lifestyles. "It wasn't an easy job," he said. "Everyone had to make compromises here and there."  Wednesday, February 8, 2006; Posted: 2:02 p.m. EST (19:02 GMT) VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) --  Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Polar Bears may become extinct with in sixty years. February 2006 Extinction of the Polar Bear ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Amid concerns that global warming is melting away the icy habitats where polar bears live, the federal government is reviewing whether they should be considered a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that protection may be warranted under the Endangered Species Act, and began a review process to consider if the bears should be listed. The agency will seek information about population distribution, habitat, effects of climate change on the bears and their prey, potential threats from development, contaminants and poaching during the next 60 days. The decision comes after the Center for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, California, filed a petition last year that said polar bears could become extinct by the end of the century because their sea ice habitat is melting away. The group, joined by the environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, also filed a federal lawsuit in December to seek federal protections for the polar bear. "I think it's a very important acknowledgment that global warming is transforming the Arctic and threatening polar bears with extinction," said Kassie Siegel, lead author of the center's petition. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods said the petition "contains sufficient information to convince us that we need to do a more thorough analysis of the polar bear population worldwide." Polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction are found only in Alaska. They spend most of their lives on sea ice, but the center said if current rates of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be completely ice-free well before the end of the century. There is some disagreement about whether polar bears are actually being threatened. Federal wildlife officials report healthy populations of polar bears, and are working on a hard population count. However, the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, NASA and the University of Washington said last fall that there was a "stunning reduction in Arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer." If the polar bear were listed as a threatened species, federal regulatory agencies would be required to consider how their decisions affect polar bears. A listing could affect industries seeking permission to release greenhouse gases or decisions such as setting fuel economy standards for vehicles, Siegel said. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The two giant pandas enjoy food in a research center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. January 2006 Taiwan cool to China panda-plomacy BEIJING, China (AP) -- China announced Friday it has picked a pair of pandas to offer to rival Taiwan as part of efforts boost public support for uniting the self-ruled island with the communist mainland and sidelining its president. The Taiwanese government, which has not decided whether to accept the animals, accused Beijing of acting rudely by announcing the gift without consulting the island, which China claims as part of its territory and has threatened to invade. The male and female pandas are both 1 year old, said Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration. They were to be named in a Jan. 28 televised vote on suggestions from the Chinese public, he told a news conference. "Under the good care of the Taiwanese compatriots, the giant pandas will surely do well and have descendants," Zhang Hemin, director of China's main panda breeding center, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. Beijing first announced the offer in May when two Taiwanese opposition leaders visited the mainland in the island's highest-level trip since the two sides split in 1949 amid civil war. The two governments have no official relations. Taiwanese officials reacted coolly to the Chinese announcement, complaining China was pushing the island into accepting the pandas. "It shows severe disrespect to us," said Joseph Wu, the Cabinet official in charge of relations with the mainland. Beijing has been trying to isolate Taiwan's independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian, forging ties with his political rivals and wooing farmers and other voters by offering concessions such as tariff cuts on imported Taiwanese fruit. Chen has come under increasing public pressure to reconcile with China since his party overwhelmingly lost Dec. 3 municipal elections to the opposition Nationalist Party, which favors eventual reunification with the mainland. Adding to that pressure Friday, Nationalist Party leader Ma Ying-jeou vowed to step up its campaign to have direct flights, shipping and other transportation links between the two sides restored. Ma, in an interview with the United Daily News, said he would seek a referendum on the issue if the government blocks the opposition's legislative efforts to ease the current bans on transport links. Wu, the government's spokesman, said Beijing must first discuss the issue with Taipei as an equal. "Pushing for law revisions and not pressing Chinese authorities to hold talks with us under parity, this would be mistaking the means for the end," Wu said. Beijing is lobbying Taiwan to drop the transport bans but Taipei has been reluctant for fear of domination by its giant neighbor. The two sides have approved charter flights to carry home Taiwanese living on the mainland for the Lunar New Year this month. But the airlines have to fly through Hong Kong airspace to ease Taiwanese security concerns. The Taiwanese capital's Taipei Zoo and the Leofoo Village amusement park in the northern town of Kuanhsi are both applying with the government to house the pandas -- which are among the world's rarest species. Taiwan's Council of Agriculture has said it will decide by March 23. Experts are discussing whether Taiwan can properly raise pandas, Wu said. Pandas are a potent public relations asset for Beijing. Dai Xiaofeng, a spokesman for Beijing's department that handles policy toward the island, said it was hoped Taipei would cooperate with China on the issue and "follow the wishes of the people on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits." "We hope the couple can meet the Taiwan compatriots as soon as possible," said Dai, from the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office. Taiwan's Council of Agriculture said the animals can't be brought to the island without its approval. "As long as the Council of Agriculture has not issued a license on the basis of animal protection laws, China cannot unilaterally announce it is sending the pandas to Taiwan," said council official Li Tao-sheng. The pandas intended for Taiwan were picked from 11 animals at the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwestern Sichuan province, the government said. Beijing says there are an estimated 1,590 pandas left in the wild in China and 183 in zoos and breeding centers. Friday, January 6, 2006; Posted: 12:21 p.m. EST (17:21 GMT) Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Need a little Christmas magic? December 2005 Panda School Report Guide   1. How many pandas are left in the world?   China currently has about 1,000 giant pandas in the wild, most of them living on the mountains around the Sichuan Basin, southwest China,according to the Ministry of Forestry.   2. What is being done to save giant pandas?   Currently, the Chinese government in conjunction with the WWF are doing all that is possible to save the giant panda. This includes further research on how to manipulate bamboo to be sturdier and faster to recover after die-off cycles.   In addition the following is being done:   -  Conservation education and public awareness activities. -  International breeding programs in zoos around the world. -  Creation of 14 new panda reserves in China bringing the total of giant panda reserves to 26. -  Corridors, forest links, between the isolated populations are being constructed to help increase the range in which the panda lives in order that the exchange of genetic material between wild populations will increase. -  Continued research and artificial insemination of giant pandas in an to attempt to continually increase their numbers.   3. What are giant panda's enemies?   Man is the giant panda's most dangerous. The adult giant panda has very few natural enemies. One of the known enemies of the giant panda is the snow leopard, which may seize a baby panda that has wondered away from it's mother or a pack of wild dogs may also capture a wondering cub. The continued population growth in China slowly and steadily depletes the bamboo forests and replaces them with cities or additional farming areas. To a lesser degree the Bamboo Rat which burrows underground, eats the roots of the bamboo growth which obviously kills the plant, leaving one less plant for the giant panda to eat.   4. What is the life span of a giant panda?   The average life span of the giant panda, in the wild is about 15 years, but in captivity they have been known to live well into their 20's and rarely into their 30's.   5. How does that giant panda protect itself against its enemies?   Giant pandas signify aggression by lowering their heads and staring at their opponents. The giant panda is a generally a passive animal and not initiate to attack man or other animals. Giant pandas, however can become violent when provoked or surprised. Generally when hearing abnormal sounds the giant panda will escape the area immediately or they will climb the nearest tree. Should they become trapped the giant panda will cover their face with their paws often hiding its eye-patches and curl up. This gesture states that they are scared and/or angry. At close range, aggression is signaled by a swipe with a paw, or by a low-pitched growl or bark that will generally send an opponent (another giant panda) scampering up the nearest tree.   6. Why are giant pandas endangered?   Habitat encroachment and destruction are the greatest threats to the continued existence of the giant panda. This is mainly because of the demand for land and natural resources by China's one billion plus inhabitants. In addition giant pandas are also susceptible to poaching, or illegal killing, as their dense fur carries a high price in the black markets in the Far East.   7. How can I help save or assist in financing research for giant pandas?   You can adopt the giant panda in four places south China's Sichuan Province: the Wolong Natural Reserve, Fengtongzhai Natural Reserve, Chengdu Zoo, Chengdu Research and Breeding Base of Giant Panda.   For further information, please click: http://www.4panda.com/panda/donation.htm.   Copyright 2005 Courtesy of www.china.org   Photo courtesy of http://unaesthetic.net/stuff/panda.jpg    http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/panda/38004.htm       Watch the Panda Cam! November 2005 Panda cub to go on limited display   Outsiders will get their first peek at the National Zoo's baby giant panda starting next week. The zoo has distributed some 600 timed entry tickets to members of its booster organization, Friends of the National Zoo.   Members of that group will get to see the panda on 11 dates, starting Monday and running through early December.   The zoo will allow FONZ members to get tickets for an additional three days of viewing. The cub, Tai Shan, was born July 9. He's expected to make his official public debut in early December, though no date has been set.   Officials believe the FONZ membership viewing will help the cub, his mother, Mei Xiang, and zoo staff get used to having crowds parade through the Panda House, which has been closed since the cub's birth.   Wednesday, November 2, 2005; Posted: 10:42 a.m. EST (15:42 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.       D.C. panda gets a name   The National Zoo's giant panda cub, known to its keepers simply as "the Cub" since his birth 100 days ago, finally has a name: Tai Shan, which means "peaceful mountain." The name received 44 percent of the estimated 200,000 votes cast on the zoo's Web site, zoo officials said Monday. The panda went without a name for its first hundred days in observance of a Chinese custom. It's rare for pandas born in captivity to live more than a few days, and keeping the animals nameless is seen as a way to trick fate into letting them survive. The cub wasn't present at his naming ceremony. Zoo officials say he probably won't be making his public debut until sometime in December, since his mother is still quite protective of him.   Panda fans celebrated the 100-day milestone at a zoo ceremony featuring performances by Chinese dance troops and martial artists. Officials from China delivered speeches toasting the fuzzy little cub. Tai Shan, pronounced "tie-SHON," spent the morning with his mother, Mei Xiang, in a den that's still off limits to zoo visitors. His handlers are slowly introducing him to the exhibit enclosure where he's expected to go on public view within the next couple months.   The male cub, born July 9, is the first giant panda born at the National Zoo to survive more than a few weeks. The mother, Mei Xiang, and the father, Tian Tian, are on a 10-year loan from China. The cub will be sent to China when it is 2. The panda cub recently took its first steps and zoo examiners say its teeth have started coming in. They said the cub has begun to exhibit signs that he's ready to play. On Sunday, Mei Xiang was resting on her platform when the cub stretched up and touched his nose to hers, then swatted her with his paw. When the mother came down from the platform and picked him up, he squirmed and swatted her again.   Monday, October 17, 2005; Posted: 1:45 p.m. EDT (17:45 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     Learn more about tracking Pandas October 2005 China to use GPS to peep on pandas   BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Chinese scientists will use satellite technology to peep on the lovable antics of China's highly endangered giant pandas, Xinhua news agency said. The $660,000 joint project between two Chinese and U.S.-based zoological institutes would use global positioning (GPS) to keep an eye on giant pandas and their behavior deep in the wilds of a nature reserve in central Shaanxi province.   "Tracking them with advanced technology and observing their activities might help us find ways to avoid their extinction," Wei Fuwen, from the China Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology, was quoted as saying. "Giant pandas are inaccessible for long periods of time and traditional observation cannot unravel the ecological mystery of the animals."   Pandas in the wild are rebounding from the brink of extinction, but they are not yet out of danger, in large part because of great difficulties in producing cubs. Nearly 80 percent of female pandas were unable to get pregnant and 90 percent of males were sterile, Xinhua said without elaborating.   Only around 1,600 of the animals are alive in the wild, mostly in the high, fog-shrouded mountains of China's southwest Sichuan province. More than 150 live in captivity.   Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Posted: 9:38 a.m. EDT (13:38 GMT)   Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Click here and Vote now at The National Zoo September 2005   Name that panda   Zoo announces panda cub naming contest     WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Zoo on Wednesday announced a nationwide contest to choose the name of its giant panda cub. The China Wildlife Conservation Association and zoo officials selected five names to choose from, said Matt O'Lear, a spokesman for Friends of the National Zoo. One voter will be chosen at random to receive a trip for two to Washington and what zoo officials call a "private visit" with the giant panda family, among other prizes.   The male cub, born July 9, is the first giant panda born at the National Zoo to survive more than a few weeks. The mother, Mai Xiang, and the father, Tian Tian, are on a 10-year loan from China. The cub will be sent to China when it is 2. Voting on the zoo's Web site runs through September 30. The winning name will be announced in October.   The choices: *  Hua Sheng, which means "China Washington" and "magnificent." *  Sheng Hua, which means "Washington China" and "magnificent." *  Tai Shan, which means "peaceful mountain." *  Long Shan, which means "dragon mountain." *  Qiang Qiang, which means "strong, powerful."   Thursday, August 25, 2005; Posted: 9:35 a.m. EDT (13:35 GMT)   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   After you vote, play The Name Game here http://www.mathpower.com/namegame.htm         A young girl presents flowers to Meimei, the world's oldest domestic giant panda that died after 20 years' dwelling in the Guilin City Zoo Tuesday, July 12, 2005. The female giant panda passed away at the age of 36, equivalent to a human being aged 108 on Tuesday. Meimei had been suffering from eating difficulties and gradual failure of varied organs lately, according to sources with the Guilin City Zoo. (AP Photo/ Xinhua, Chen Ruihua) August 2005   World's oldest panda in captivity dies   BEIJING --The world's oldest panda held in captivity has died at a south China zoo at the age of 36, or the equivalent of 108 human years, according to the Chinese government. Meimei died Tuesday at the Guilin City Zoo in the Guangxi region, where she had been living for the past 20 years, the Xinhua News Agency said. Because of her old age, Meimei had recently suffered from eating difficulties and the gradual failure of various organs, Xinhua cited zoo officials as saying. "She had entertained numerous visitors from both home and abroad, and remained the most popular animal in the zoo throughout her stay here," Xinhua quoted zookeeper Chen Qian as saying. Meimei lived in the Wolong Natural Conservation Area in southwest China's Sichuan province before being transferred to the zoo in September 1985. The park is China's premier center for the study and breeding of pandas. Giant pandas are generally found in temperate forests in central China. Among the best recognized -- but rarest -- animals in the world, as few as 1,600 giant pandas survive in the mountain forests of central China. Another 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos. Pandas are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate. Females in the wild normally have a cub once every two to three years.   © Copyright 2005 Associated Press. July 13, 2005 All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Watch cute Panda Twin movies! July 2005 Panda Twins BEIJING : Giant panda Ying Ying gave birth to a pair of twin cubs at southwestern China's Wolong Giant Panda Center in Sichuan province, state press said Wednesday. "This marks the beginning of the year's breeding season for China's captive giant pandas," Cao Qingyao, the center's spokesman told the China Daily. The birthing took 13 hours on Sunday, the newspaper said, adding the mother and cubs were declared fit and given a clean bill of health. One of the babies was taken from Ying Ying as the endangered species usually only nurtures one cub at a time, it said. Experts will initially rear the other cub before returning the baby to the mother when it becomes stronger. A total of 74 cubs have been born at the Wolong center, China's most advanced panda breeding center, with 61 surviving. As of the end of 2004, China had raised 163 giant pandas in captivity, while almost 1,600 of the rare animals are believed to be living in the wild in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. © Asia Pacific News/AFI   Courtesy of Justin Jin Copyright 2005 June 2005 Pandas may face Extinction in the year 2040 CHENGDU, China (CNN) -- About 1,000 pandas still survive in the wild, scattered across forest fragments in southwest China as habitats shrink. The bears have become an international symbol of the global effort to save endangered species. The species is expected to become extinct by about 2040, barring a drastic change of events. But the births of four baby pandas at China's Chengdu Breeding and Research Center since September 1997 have scientists excited that they are making slow but steady progress in increasing the panda population. Artificial insemination could delay the extinction of the giant panda by about 60 years or more, according to scientists who want to use the technique to produce more pandas.   Chinese worker attacked   A worker's close call with a giant panda at a breeding center in southern China last week is a reminder: nature isn't as cute as it appears. Pandas may look cuddly and passive, but the bears can be violent when provoked -- a lesson a worker at a government reserve learned the hard way this week. Startled when the woman tumbled down a slope, the panda ripped one of Li Yuanzhen's thighs and then bit her other leg. Chinese state media reported that Li was cutting grass at the center when the accident occurred. She was rushed to an army hospital, but was not seriously injured. Officials at the center said the panda had reacted naturally to the surprise. The animal would continue its normal routine and would not be punished, they said. The rare bears, native to China and long revered, have become stars at the few zoos lucky enough to have them. But they can also be vicious. Pandas have sharp teeth and powerful paws. They have been known to become aggressive when surprised, challenged or when they sense their territory is being invaded.   January 21, 1999 http://www.cnn.com/TECH/science/9901/21/panda.attack/index.html  Web posted at: 5:14 p.m. EST (2214 GMT) The Associated Press contributed to this report.   Courtesy of www.oneposter.com May 2005   Pandas at San Diego Zoo mate successfully   SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- The two giant pandas at the city's zoo retired to their favorite spot under a few bushes and mated over the past two days -- the only successful natural insemination of a panda this year in the United States, officials said Saturday. It was the second mating for Bai Yun and Gao Gao at the San Diego Zoo, which closed its panda exhibit to visitors and pointed its Internet "panda cam" elsewhere for the occasion. Bai Yun gave birth in 2003 to Mei Sheng and did not mate last year because she was nursing the cub. Bai Yun will likely give birth to her third cub in about 4 1/2 months, said Don Lindburg, the zoo's giant panda conservation team leader. Lindburg said Bai Yun had displayed signs of being receptive to mating in recent days, including yipping and raising her tail, walking through water and scraping pine tree bark onto her head and face. "It's getting her perfume on for the date," Lindburg said. Zoo officials then lifted the gate that separates the two for much of the year on Friday to let the mating begin. The pandas, both 13 years old, spent about 15 minutes mating in the same spot on Gao Gao's side of the exhibit where they mated in 2003. Then, Lindburg said, "They pretty much ate and slept. They were pretty content to sleep most of the day, and try it again this morning." The pandas mated for about a half-hour on Saturday. Researchers detected live sperm in Bai Yun's urine and determined that she had been successfully inseminated. Female pandas are in heat for only a day or two a year. Natural mating attempts in recent weeks were unsuccessful at zoos in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Both females were then artifically inseminated, but it is too soon to tell whether they are pregnant. The recent amorous tendencies of the pair in San Diego are a relief for zoo officials who tried unsuccessfully from 1996 to 2002 to get Bai Yun to mate with Shi Shi, the zoo's first male. Artificial insemination resulted in the 1999 birth of Hua Mei, the first giant panda to survive more than four days in the U.S. About 1,600 giant pandas live in the wild in their native China and another 200 live in captivity there. Less than two dozen pandas live in captivity outside China. Under the loan agreement with China, all pandas born at zoos outside the country must be returned to China after the animals mature. Monday, April 11, 2005 Posted: 11:59 AM EDT (1559 GMT)   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   Giant Chinese pandas Yang Yang, left, and Lun Lun play at Zoo Atlanta in this 1999 file photo. April 2005   'Panda baby watch' starts in Atlanta   Zoo hopeful that 'textbook' artificial insemination worked   The Associated Press Updated: 12:57 a.m. ET March 24, 2005   ATLANTA - A rare possible panda pregnancy was announced by the top official at Zoo Atlanta on Wednesday. "We have some exciting news," zoo president and CEO Dennis Kelly said at a news conference just outside the panda compound.   "We are soon to go on panda baby watch," he said. "They have not successfully mated naturally, but we had a textbook case of artificial insemination last night." If a birth occurs, it would be only the third giant panda born in the United States. The baby would be the property of China, which loaned the potential parents to Zoo Atlanta. Lun Lun, the female of the two giant pandas at Zoo Atlanta, spent the announcement time sleeping away, but the male, Yang Yang, was on public view, ignoring a crowd of children watching as he munched on a big pile of bamboo. A birth could be expected between early June and August if Lun Lun is pregnant, said Dwight Lawson, who heads Zoo Atlanta's animal program and research. He said it would be a few days or a week before officials would know if the artificial insemination worked. "We have a lot of confidence we pinpointed her fertility cycle," Lawson said. The only two previous pandas born in the U.S. were at the San Diego Zoo - the last being Mei Sheng two years ago and the first being Hua Mei in 1999. Hua Mei gave birth to twins last September, seven months after she was returned to China. "It's a big deal when we have a panda birth in the United States," Lawson said.   Lawson says there's every reason to believe the process will produce a cub. "We were able to get a phenomenal sperm sample from Yang Yang," he said. He said it panda cubs are so small it's difficult to see one in the womb until just before a birth. If twins should be born, Lawson said zookeepers would take care of one of them, perhaps alternating cubs with the mother. "The female only takes care of one cub, but nobody can do a better job of taking care of that cub than mom," Lawson said. The two Zoo Atlanta pandas are about 7 years old. Yang Yang weighs about 300 pounds, about 70 pounds more than Lun Lun. Zoo officials had hoped the pair would mate, but weren't surprised they didn't. "We've got two inexperienced young animals," Lawson said. "It takes a while for them to figure out what they need to do. The female is receptive to the male only two or three days a year." He said baby pandas are so small, "about the size of the palm of your hand. They's why it's so difficult to detect when she's pregnant."   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.     Courtesy of www.oneposter.com March 2005   Too many koalas for island to bear   ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- More koalas will be sterilized to rein in the explosive growth in their numbers on Kangaroo Island off the south Australian coast, where forests are being devastated by their hunger for eucalyptus leaves, authorities said Monday. "With no natural predators the koala population has been booming in places and they are eating themselves out of their habitat and destroying the natural environment," said South Australia state Environment Minister John Hill. Eucalyptus trees on Kangaroo Island were particularly at risk because of the burgeoning koala population, he said. "Numbers are increasing and we know we must act on this as a matter of urgency," he added. There are 27,000 koalas on the island and some experts say some should be shot to control their numbers, but government officials have refused to sanction such a cull, fearing it could spark an international outcry and have a devastating impact on tourism. "That sort of management would appall the many thousands of tourists who come to South Australia from all over the world each year," Hill said. The state government plans to quadruple the number of koalas sterilized this year from 145 to 650 and to capture and shift to the mainland another 550 of the animals. Sunday, February 13, 2005 Posted: 7:43 PM EST (0043 GMT)   http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/02/13/australia.koala.ap/index.html   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.     A conservation group calls global warming the primary threat to polar bears. February 2005 Group seeks polar bear protection   Thursday, February 17, 2005 Posted: 10:22 AM EST (1522 GMT) ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A conservation group filed a formal petition seeking to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, saying global warming could make it extinct by the end of the century. The Arctic sea ice habitat polar bears use for feeding, mating and maternity denning is breaking up earlier each spring and forming later in the autumn, said Kassie Siegel, lead author of the petition submitted Wednesday by the Center for Biological Diversity. She said the United States must soon reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a fraction of current levels. She supports higher fuel efficiency standards for automobiles as one answer. The petition sets off a 90-day review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an evaluation of whether further study is warranted, said Rosa Meehan, chief of the agency's marine mammal management program. Alaska has two populations of polar bears, Meehan said. She said the Beaufort Sea stock off Alaska's northern coast, estimated at 2,000 animals, is stable or increasing. Less is known about the Bering-Chukchi stock off Alaska's northwest coast, where the population is shared with Russia. A 1998 estimate put their numbers at 2,000 to 5,000. The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears worldwide. The petition calls global warming the primary threat to polar bears. Shorter periods of sea ice give polar bears less time to hunt their primary source of food, ringed seals, Siegel said. Other threats the petition lists include Arctic oil and gas development and overhunting of some populations in Canada, Greenland and Russia. In the United States, the Marine Mammal Protection Act provides for unlimited harvest by subsistence hunters. Listing under the Endangered Species Act would provide broad protection to polar bears, including a requirement that federal agencies ensure that government actions not "jeopardize the continued existence" of polar bears, or adversely modify their critical habitat.   Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.   http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/17/polar.bears.ap/index.html       Click image for more pictures January 2005   Rain Bird's - Playful Pandamonium   RAIN BIRD® TO BEAR DOWN AND BRING AWARENESS TO THE NEED FOR THE INTELLIGENT USE OF WATER™ WITH ITS 2005 TOURNAMENT OF ROSES® PARADE FLOAT ENTRY, PLAYFUL PANDAMONIUM   LEADING MANUFACTURER OF SPRINKLER AND DRIP IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT TO RENEW CALLS FOR WATER CONSERVATION AS IT PAYS HOMAGE TO THE PLIGHT OF THE GIANT PANDA AND ENDANGERED SPECIES WORLDWIDE   Renowned Animal Experts And Environmental Stewards Jack Hanna And Walter C. Crawford, Jr. To Celebrate The New Year As Float Riders Aboard Playful Pandamonium   GLENDORA, CA (December 26, 2004) - Rain Bird(r) Corporation, the leading manufacturer and provider of irrigation products and services, continues its proud tradition of bringing awareness to the importance of water conservation and environmental preservation through its 2005 Tournament of Roses Parade entry, Playful Pandamonium.   In accordance with the 2005 Rose Parade theme, Celebrate Family, Rain Bird's 2005 float entry will celebrate a magnificent family of giant panda bears as they playfully frolic, catch up on their sleep and crunch on fresh bamboo culled from a mist-shrouded forest given life by an adjacent stream.   "The nurturing values exhibited by this magnificent family of giant pandas are many of the same values that need to be applied towards preserving the environments in which all of us inhabit," said Bruno Windegger, Director, Rain Bird Corporation.   "As the ultimate symbol of the need for environmental preservation, the giant pandas portrayed on Playful Pandamonium get much of the water they need from bamboo, but giant pandas need more water than what bamboo alone can provide, and must rely on the continuous flow of rivers and streams in order to survive. Consequently, the continued depletion of Earth's most precious resource, water, presents a serious threat to the vitality of these and all living creatures, a prime example of the need for conserving water by using it in the most efficient and precise manner possible."