Panda?

Photographed in a city square in KirovogradIt, this was not a panda. It was a dog who had been dyed and trimmed to look like one. For 20UAH you could pay and have your picture taken with the pandog. The man also had a small monkey on a leash who seemed terrified and spent as much time as it could hiding it’s face under the man’s collar. 

The Old Zoo

The LA Zoo wasn't always in as nice a facility as it is now. The "old" LA zoo was built in 1912 and was in use until 1965, when it moved to its current location just a couple miles away in a different area of Griffith Park. It's open to check out, and is adjacent to a picnic area. There are fenced off areas, but all the fences have giant people-sized holes in them. We thought of it more as: "enter at your own risk."

Elvis the Croc steals machines from park keepers to play with in pool | Mail Online

Elvis the Croc steals machines from park keepers to play with in pool | Mail Online:

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Elvis the Croc steals machines from park keepers to play with in pool | Mail Online

Elvis the Croc steals machines from park keepers to play with in pool | Mail Online:

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Sleeping it off.... extra Panda Cake

It sure beats bamboo: Pandas celebrate first Christmas at Edinburgh Zoo with extra helpings of cake  Christmas morning, zoo bosses dished out an extra portion of the special panda cake made from soya, corn, rice, egg and oil.

Yang Guang goes through 55kg of bamboo daily and Tian Tian around 30kg in total.

They get four deliveries of fresh bamboo every day while also munching on carrots and panda cake as part of their specially-tailored balanced diet.


















Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078507/Pandas-Edinburgh-Zoo-Tian-Tian-Yang-Guang-celebrate-Christmas-UK.html#ixzz1hsLkEZ3D

Panda Cake

It sure beats bamboo: Pandas celebrate first Christmas at Edinburgh Zoo with extra helpings of cake
Thousands have already flocked to see Tian Tian and Yang Guang since they made their debut last week
By KERRY MCQUEENEY



As much of the population reaches for the indigestion remedies after gorging on their Christmas dinner, it would seem they were not alone in the over-indulgence stakes today.
The UK's only pair of giant pandas celebrated their first Christmas in Scotland - by devouring extra helpings of panda cake.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang - or Sunshine and Sweetie - have been getting used to their new home in Edinburgh Zoo since arriving from China on December 4.
Scroll down for the video



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078507/Pandas-Edinburgh-Zoo-Tian-Tian-Yang-Guang-celebrate-Christmas-UK.html#ixzz1hsIcNVYS

Panda caught on infra-red camera tucking into dead antelope | Mail Online

Panda caught on infra-red camera tucking into dead antelope | Mail Online:

He looks like he has been caught out helping himself to a forbidden snack.

And perhaps this panda realises he has given away a secret kept under wraps for years as he is captured red-handed tucking into a dead antelope.

It was previously thought the creatures were strictly herbivores but as this infra-red camera shot taken in Ping Wu, in southwest China's Sichuan province shows, pandas sometimes do prefer a meaty snack.

According to the World Wildlife Fund China pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore and will eat meat if available, but adapted a long time ago to a vegetarian diet.
Because of this carnivorous digestive system the panda derives little energy and protein from consumption of bamboo so must eat as much as 14kg a day to stay healthy.
It has taken millions of years living in bamboo forests for the panda to improve its ability to digest cellulose from bamboo.
  It is unlikely the panda pictured killed the antelope in the picture and may have fortuitously stumbled across the animal in the forest.

China is set to launch its once-a-decade panda census as it tries to determine how many of the endangered animals live in the wild amid efforts to boost numbers.

That's more like it! Yang Guang the panda at Edinburgh Zoo gets his mouth around the more traditional panda snack, bamboo

And as the population depletes government officials confirmed it will begin sending pandas bred in captivity into a controlled wilderness area in southwestern Sichuan province next month, the most ambitious attempt to rebuild the country's depleted population of giant pandas in a natural habitat.

The first six pandas selected from 108 raised by the Chengdu Giant Panda Rehabilitation Project, the world's largest captive bred population of giant pandas, will be released to a protected natural area covering more than 2,000 acres.

'Rather than keeping them in their enclosures, we will spend the next 50 years helping them return to their natural habitat, which is the ultimate goal of the Chengdu Panda Base,' Zhang Zhihe, director of the base, said.

The pandas, bred through artificial insemination, will be released in batches and monitored as they acclimatise. Those who perform well in an initial area will be released into the primary controlled wilderness area.

The first six pandas range in age from two to four and were chosen on the basis of gender ratio and health.

In 2004, a census by the Worldwide Fund for Nature counted 1,600 pandas in the wild, most in Sichuan province.

Pandas are difficult to breed because females ovulate only once a year and can only become pregnant during a two or three-day period.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079320/Panda-caught-infra-red-camera-tucking-dead-antelope.html#ixzz1hs7k1Jla

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